I grieve for all that we’ve lost due to capitalist industry and commerce, and for so much more that we still have to lose… 😢
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There have been five mass extinctions of life in Earth’s history, caused by cataclysms such as volcanic eruptions or meteorite impact. Scientists warn that human activity is now causing species to go extinct at a *thousand* times the normal background rate. Leading experts in the field predict that half of the world’s estimated eight million species will be extinct or at the brink of extinction by the end of this century unless humanity changes its ways.

Why don’t we react in unbridled outrage to the devastation of the natural world taking place before our eyes? A major reason is that we don’t realize what we’ve lost. Whatever conditions people grow up with are the ones they generally consider normal. This is a tribute to the amazing plasticity of the human mind, but it means that we tend to take for granted things that should never be accepted.

The somber truth is that the vast bulk of nature’s staggering abundance has already disappeared. We live in a world characterized primarily by the relative silence and emptiness of its natural spaces. It’s only when we read accounts of wildlife from centuries ago that we realize how much is gone.

The next time you go for a hike in nature, and marvel at its beauty, take a moment to realize that you are looking at a pale, shrunken wraith of what it once was. An accumulation of studies around the world measuring the declines of species and ecosystems indicates that overall we’ve lost around 90% of nature’s profusion.

We live in a ten percent world.
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Grief - Rage - Resignation - Defiance ... how do you respond to all this?

FULL ESSAY -- https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-07-06/the-ideology-of-human-supremacy/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

I'm 70 years old. Many of my followers here are seniors, like me, or are at least middle-aged. Most of us are angry and probably grief-stricken about what capitalist industry is doing to the biosphere.

But what must it feel like to be a young person in your teens or in your twenties and be looking toward a future of near-certain disaster, the collapse of society, the destruction of everything you hold dear? I can't imagine the pain.

It would be understandable if they reacted by simply giving up. Or perhaps by lashing out in anger. But some of them, showing incredible courage and determination, have formed movements to change what they can and to save at least a vestige of the civilization they are inheriting.

I stand in awe of these selfless, dedicated young people.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

Want to hear some crazy radical ideas?

Check this out...
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❝ Capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil. Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.

The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital, the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights. ❞
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That's from 1949 (!) and it was written by...... wait for it...... Albert Einstein.

LEARN MORE -- https://archive.ph/jvlFD

ALTERNATE LINK -- https://glenhendrix50.medium.com/einstein-in-1949-predicted-how-and-why-society-would-go-sideways-d9ab65ed4882

#Politics #Capitalism

Not what we want to hear...
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"Greenland Ice Sheet is close to a melting point of no return, says new study"

The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 1.7 million square kilometers in the Arctic. If it melts entirely, global sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet), but scientists aren't sure how quickly the ice sheet could melt.

Based in part on carbon emissions, a new study using simulations identified two tipping points for the Greenland Ice Sheet: releasing 1000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will cause the southern portion of the ice sheet to melt; about 2500 gigatons of carbon means permanent loss of nearly the entire ice sheet.

Having emitted about 500 gigatons of carbon, we're about halfway to the first tipping point.

"The first tipping point is not far from today's climate conditions, so we're in danger of crossing it," said Dennis Höning, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who led the study. "Once we start sliding, we will fall off this cliff and cannot climb back up."

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://phys.org/news/2023-03-greenland-ice-sheet.html

#Emissions #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT: A PARABLE

The patient told the doctor, “I’m running a high fever and it keeps getting worse. I feel bloated all the time. I’m nauseous, I have diarrhea, and also terrible headaches. Can you help me?”

After a thorough examination and a battery of tests, the doctor said, “You need a complete overhaul of your system, a radical change to your diet, and an improved fitness regime. We’ll have to flush all the bad agents from your body. It won’t be easy, it will take a lot of work, but it’s your only hope.”

“Oh, no, no — I couldn’t do that,” said the patient. “It sounds much too difficult!”

Needless to say, the patient died.

#CLIMATE #ENVIRONMENT

An examination of human psychology reveals why it's so hard to make a significant difference or stimulate meaningful changes while acting (like me) as a "climate alarmist." 🚨

In a recent article on Medium, T.J. Brearton explores this subject through the prism of a book he's been reading called "Generation Dread" by Britt Wray...
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People will be building homes on the coasts even as the ocean encroaches. Often cited by deniers and skeptics as proof of a hoax, the Obamas bought a home on Martha’s Vineyard just a couple of years ago.

Are the Obamas deniers? Are they using negation? Britt Wray presents a third type of psychological defense, called disavowal, “a kind of soft denial.” This is the category of people who understand the science and the risks, and, while concerned about systems collapse, simultaneously play down the threats so that they can continue living their lives according to their desires.

By the time things are so bad they’re affecting most people, we will have been hearing about climate alarm for decades. Whole swaths of the population will have completely tuned it out.

Indeed, we’re all making these decisions every day, to keep the lights on in our home, to keep gasoline in our cars so that we can get to work, take care of our immediate needs.

And we will always be this way, right up until the ocean is at our front door, or the heat is rising to surpass survivable wet-bulb temperatures, or the grocery store is suddenly bare.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/why-climate-alarmism-doesnt-work-4ccfe37d27c0

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Psychology