Being the change

What Hacker News says

1. fooblitzkyOct 2019
   I agree that thinking humanity will be wiped out in 15 years is over the top.

   I think though, that anyone that has fully grasped the IPCC reports, has to go through a grieving process that begins with despair.

   Climate change is unlikely to kill me (unless through secondary effects like war), or even my daughter. But it's probably going to make my life more challenging towards the end, even more so for my daughter, and if she has any children they will probably be starting to face the real challenges (note: first world countries, for the global south, those timelines will be accelerated).

   The despair though, is rooted in knowing that the natural world of my youth is gone forever (on human timescales). My daughter will never experience the same number of insects, fish, and birds I saw as a child[1]. Diversity is lost as millions of species are already going extinct. Coral reefs will be lifeless ghost towns. I can never share that world with her or my future grandchildren. Because the damage we have already done will take thousands of years to repair, that world only exists in my memories now.

   On the other side of despair is acceptance and personal action. I do what I can, but I realize I'm only one among billions, and I have to accept that I can't fix a global problem, no matter how bad I think the impact is.

   For anyone interested in further reading, I recommend the book _Being the Change_, by Peter Kalmus (https://smile.amazon.com/Being-Change-Spark-Climate-Revoluti...)

   [1] She'll never even touch dirt, drink water, or breathe air that doesn't contain thousands of microplastic particles.

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2. oskiMay 2019
   In researching what we can do about climate change, the most convincing proposed policy solution I've seen comes from the Citizen's Climate Lobby -- a Carbon Fee and Dividend (https://citizensclimatelobby.org/basics-carbon-fee-dividend/), which I learned about while reading "Being the Change" by Dr. Peter Kalmus.

   Basically, it's a plan for a carbon tax along with a rebate program (similar to UBI in my opinion) so that the least well off financially don't get crushed by things like higher gas prices.

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