A question about climate change/global warming.

stolen from lucifer's hammer: get a hardcover copy of 'the way things work' and keep it in a ziploc bag

hardcover copy of 'the way things work'

Practical skills and tools are very worthwhile acquisitions, but for me the most important item on my list is keep thinking clearly.

As I understand the world, humans survive very poorly in the absence of a stable shared society of some kind. As the stability of our very large social organization breaks down and can no longer solve the immediate problems of survival, it will elevate the necessity of forming new, more reliable (if smaller and more local) social alliances and finding new modes of stability.

The more quickly the older social contract is shattered, the more drastically those new social compacts will be stressed and the more likely they'll atomize into smaller and smaller groupings. Having practical skills and tools will make things not just easier for yourself, but make you a far more valuable ally in any group you join, but thinking clearly in the face of those stresses will help even more.

One takeway from Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry For The Future that stood out to me was that even after millions of people dying in climate-related events, nothing really began to pick up until Crash Day - when in the 2030s 60 passenger jets are crashed by drones, then container ships and meat farming are targeted until in the 2040s air travel ends and meat eating declines.

i honestly didn't get past the first chapter, which is harrowing as fuck

It is harrowing as fuck, but the book is somewhat hopeful and offers some kind of pathway that isn't exercises in prepping and doomerism.

iirc that book makes a pretty convincing argument that "adaptation" to climate change will not be an option for millions and millions of people

KSR sounds amazing. Have to read that book.

I also didn't make it much past the first chapter, though I skimmed ahead some. It hadn't been that long since the heat dome in the PNW when I tried to read it, so it was all horrifyingly easy to imagine.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/15/spain-water-barcelona-farmers-tourism-catalonia-drought

We are getting our answers

Burundi’s capital has been under heavy flood and landslide for over a week now. Many areas affected include Kibenga, Gatumba, Kajaga and so on. Thousands of people forced to flee their homes fearing for their lives. The govt of Burundi & the @UN launched a call for financial aid. pic.twitter.com/4vPyEsjfe7

— African News feed. (@africansinnews) April 21, 2024