Elegy for a Country’s Seasons
March 13, 2014 8:06 PM Subscribe
In the end, the only thing that could create the necessary traction in our minds was the intimate loss of the things we loved. Zadie Smith on climate change at a personal level.
I don’t think we have made matters of science into questions of belief out of sheer stupidity...both “sides” are full of guilt, full of self-disgust—what Martin Amis once called “species shame”—and we project it outward. This is what fuels the petty fury of our debates, even in the midst of crisis.
...the apocalyptic scenarios did not help—the terrible truth is that we had a profound, historical attraction to apocalypse...
...or the day I went into an Italian garden in early July, with its owner, a woman in her eighties, and upon seeing the scorched yellow earth and withered roses, and hearing what only the really old people will confess—"in all my years I’ve never seen anything like it"—I found my mind finally beginning to turn from the elegiac "what have we done?" to the practical "what can we do?"
This piece brought my evening to a stop. There's so much here in such a short essay. Read this.
I'm going to sit and think for a bit about how pretty it was this year when the trees here in Vancouver started budding in January.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:52 PM on March 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
...the apocalyptic scenarios did not help—the terrible truth is that we had a profound, historical attraction to apocalypse...
...or the day I went into an Italian garden in early July, with its owner, a woman in her eighties, and upon seeing the scorched yellow earth and withered roses, and hearing what only the really old people will confess—"in all my years I’ve never seen anything like it"—I found my mind finally beginning to turn from the elegiac "what have we done?" to the practical "what can we do?"
This piece brought my evening to a stop. There's so much here in such a short essay. Read this.
I'm going to sit and think for a bit about how pretty it was this year when the trees here in Vancouver started budding in January.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:52 PM on March 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
Disclaimer: I work on this.
But, I ran across the chart at the bottom of this page today, and found it terribly sobering.
posted by underflow at 10:05 PM on March 13, 2014 [5 favorites]
But, I ran across the chart at the bottom of this page today, and found it terribly sobering.
posted by underflow at 10:05 PM on March 13, 2014 [5 favorites]
I remember the morning of 12 September 2001 quite vividly because of the news I was about to hear. On my way to the train station I saw magnolias at their prime. These days the magnolias go nuts in mid-late August and have finished by mid-September. Only a couple of weeks and hey, they still bloom. But yeah, I notice.
posted by Athanassiel at 10:30 PM on March 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Athanassiel at 10:30 PM on March 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
During Superstorm Sandy, I climbed down fifteen floors, several months pregnant, in the darkness, just so I could get a Wi-Fi signal and e-mail a climate-change-denying acquaintance with this fresh evidence of his idiocy.
Sending a selfie of yourself in a noreaster is not really fresh evidence of climate change.
posted by three blind mice at 10:31 PM on March 13, 2014 [7 favorites]
Sending a selfie of yourself in a noreaster is not really fresh evidence of climate change.
posted by three blind mice at 10:31 PM on March 13, 2014 [7 favorites]
both “sides” are full of guilt, full of self-disgust—what Martin Amis once called “species shame”—and we project it outward. This is what fuels the petty fury of our debates, even in the midst of crisis.
As a scientist this irritated me so much I couldn't really enjoy the rest of the article. Climate change scientists have hardly engaged in "petty fury", and I don't think they're driven by species-shame.
posted by fshgrl at 10:35 PM on March 13, 2014 [30 favorites]
As a scientist this irritated me so much I couldn't really enjoy the rest of the article. Climate change scientists have hardly engaged in "petty fury", and I don't think they're driven by species-shame.
posted by fshgrl at 10:35 PM on March 13, 2014 [30 favorites]
I read that as the petty fury of individual political/cultural debates.
posted by kokaku at 10:39 PM on March 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 10:39 PM on March 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
I found my mind finally beginning to turn from the elegiac what have we done to the practical what can we do?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our commitment to global warming is already too far advanced for us to do anything to change the horrible outcomes which lie in store.
We can hope for strategies to mitigate what we have already built into the system, but we cannot do anything at this point to halt what we have already set in motion.
I will be dead in 40 years, I won't have to deal with any of it. I feel sorry for today's first-graders.
posted by hippybear at 10:55 PM on March 13, 2014 [15 favorites]
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our commitment to global warming is already too far advanced for us to do anything to change the horrible outcomes which lie in store.
We can hope for strategies to mitigate what we have already built into the system, but we cannot do anything at this point to halt what we have already set in motion.
I will be dead in 40 years, I won't have to deal with any of it. I feel sorry for today's first-graders.
posted by hippybear at 10:55 PM on March 13, 2014 [15 favorites]
I'm going to sit and think for a bit about how pretty it was this year when the trees here in Vancouver started budding in January.
I used to think it strange when I was younger when I saw trees in bloom in Victoria (just across the water) in January, but in Victoria at least, these are a species of apricot plums that usually bloom in mid-winter.
Anyway, I am in Japan this winter, and it has been a weird one - Tokyo and the Pacific Seaboard (Tokai) getting a foot of snow while the Japan Sea is mild and dry. A total reversal caused by a change in the Jet Stream.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:14 PM on March 13, 2014
I used to think it strange when I was younger when I saw trees in bloom in Victoria (just across the water) in January, but in Victoria at least, these are a species of apricot plums that usually bloom in mid-winter.
Anyway, I am in Japan this winter, and it has been a weird one - Tokyo and the Pacific Seaboard (Tokai) getting a foot of snow while the Japan Sea is mild and dry. A total reversal caused by a change in the Jet Stream.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:14 PM on March 13, 2014
As a scientist this irritated me so much I couldn't really enjoy the rest of the article. Climate change scientists have hardly engaged in "petty fury", and I don't think they're driven by species-shame.I don't think Smith was talking about people working in the field of climate change science.
I think many of the conversations (none with scientists) I've been in about climate change devolve into petty fury and species shame. Sort of like "welp, humans are horrible and we screw up everything and we deserve what's coming to us" -- all of which isn't constructive and doesn't make intellectual sense to me. It's a miserable, self-loathing way of thinking about things.
posted by wilted at 11:31 PM on March 13, 2014 [6 favorites]
This whole "polar vortex" just reminds me of what winters were like when I was a kid 40 years ago... winters that are simply less frequent due to global warming. Maybe it's confirmation bias, but this taste of what it used to be like helps cement things for me in the global warming picture.
posted by MikeWarot at 11:33 PM on March 13, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by MikeWarot at 11:33 PM on March 13, 2014 [4 favorites]
Remember how it always snowed at Christmas? And those long, hot summers when we were kids?
I suppose the sad truth is that we're just too greedy to deserve those things any more.
posted by Segundus at 12:12 AM on March 14, 2014
I suppose the sad truth is that we're just too greedy to deserve those things any more.
posted by Segundus at 12:12 AM on March 14, 2014
There's a hedgehog in the corner of my London garden. It shouldn't be remarkable but it is.
The Thames froze because the arches and encroachments of the old London Bridge slowed the flow of the river.
But regardless, this article expresses how I've felt for a while, and will stay with me for a long time.
posted by Helga-woo at 1:00 AM on March 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
The Thames froze because the arches and encroachments of the old London Bridge slowed the flow of the river.
But regardless, this article expresses how I've felt for a while, and will stay with me for a long time.
posted by Helga-woo at 1:00 AM on March 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
Every country has its own version of this local sadness. Very nice.
I live in a tiny country in the Middle East that, this December, underwent the worst snow storm in thirty years. I'm talking meters and meters of snow. I don't know how many people have seen an entire capital rendered completely non functional, but it was something akin to an icy apocalypse. At first it was beautiful, covering all of the ugly bare stone and broken buildings. And then it kept coming, harder and harder with people left to survive as if it were the end of days. Thousands of broken olive trees and twenty or thirty dead refugees later, has anyone's attitudes really changed? Not a chance. Long term memory is expensive.
posted by desert_laundry at 3:45 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
I live in a tiny country in the Middle East that, this December, underwent the worst snow storm in thirty years. I'm talking meters and meters of snow. I don't know how many people have seen an entire capital rendered completely non functional, but it was something akin to an icy apocalypse. At first it was beautiful, covering all of the ugly bare stone and broken buildings. And then it kept coming, harder and harder with people left to survive as if it were the end of days. Thousands of broken olive trees and twenty or thirty dead refugees later, has anyone's attitudes really changed? Not a chance. Long term memory is expensive.
posted by desert_laundry at 3:45 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
I sort of wonder if the meteorological fauxes-pas weren't intentional. The piece is sort of about how we can't relate to meteorology in a direct and personal way, and part of the reason for that is our individual lives so frequently fail to match step with global trends.
It's pretty silly to point at any specific weather event as evidence for or against global warming, yes. We still do it because you need to do actual math in order to do much better than that, and most of us can't be bothered, even if we have the capacity.
posted by LogicalDash at 3:51 AM on March 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's pretty silly to point at any specific weather event as evidence for or against global warming, yes. We still do it because you need to do actual math in order to do much better than that, and most of us can't be bothered, even if we have the capacity.
posted by LogicalDash at 3:51 AM on March 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
at least August is still reliably ablaze—in Cornwall
I think this will come as a surprise to many of my fellow inhabitants of Cornwall.
posted by biffa at 4:38 AM on March 14, 2014
I think this will come as a surprise to many of my fellow inhabitants of Cornwall.
posted by biffa at 4:38 AM on March 14, 2014
More on the Little Ice Age that Bwithh mentioned: it was also called the Year Without Summer and it looks like it inspired quite a few artists and authors.
posted by kmartino at 5:39 AM on March 14, 2014
posted by kmartino at 5:39 AM on March 14, 2014
Oh huzzah, the continued ignorant conflation of weather with climate!
posted by gsh at 5:48 AM on March 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by gsh at 5:48 AM on March 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
It’s hard to keep apocalypse consistently in mind, especially if you want to get out of bed in the morning.
That may be the most perfect sentence written about this whole topic yet.
posted by jbickers at 6:17 AM on March 14, 2014 [6 favorites]
That may be the most perfect sentence written about this whole topic yet.
posted by jbickers at 6:17 AM on March 14, 2014 [6 favorites]
This whole "polar vortex" just reminds me of what winters were like when I was a kid 40 years ago... winters that are simply less frequent due to global warming. Maybe it's confirmation bias, but this taste of what it used to be like helps cement things for me in the global warming picture.
That's how I felt in January. It's now the middle of March and with one brief exception set to be around 35f (2C) for the rest of the month. I have taken to hauling out my phone first thing in the morning and watching the weather forecast in the hope of hearing that it might someday be warmer than this in order to spur me out of bed. The hope remains unfulfilled. We might get more snow Monday but the weatherman refused to countenance a discussion of it, saying that since the chances of snow were only 50-50 he'd rather not go into it for fear of depressing the viewership.
posted by Diablevert at 6:32 AM on March 14, 2014
That's how I felt in January. It's now the middle of March and with one brief exception set to be around 35f (2C) for the rest of the month. I have taken to hauling out my phone first thing in the morning and watching the weather forecast in the hope of hearing that it might someday be warmer than this in order to spur me out of bed. The hope remains unfulfilled. We might get more snow Monday but the weatherman refused to countenance a discussion of it, saying that since the chances of snow were only 50-50 he'd rather not go into it for fear of depressing the viewership.
posted by Diablevert at 6:32 AM on March 14, 2014
"[What can we do about it?] Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our commitment to global warming is already too far advanced for us to do anything to change the horrible outcomes which lie in store.
We can hope for strategies to mitigate what we have already built into the system, but we cannot do anything at this point to halt what we have already set in motion.
I will be dead in 40 years, I won't have to deal with any of it. I feel sorry for today's first-graders."
My older daughter is a first grader. My younger is a preschooler.
I can't accept defeat. Resignation is not an option. We have to push for solutions. There's too much at stake not to. The politicians must be made to understand this. Even the stupid, greedy denialist ones. The odds are long and the chances slim, but we can't give in. We have to try.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 6:53 AM on March 14, 2014 [6 favorites]
We can hope for strategies to mitigate what we have already built into the system, but we cannot do anything at this point to halt what we have already set in motion.
I will be dead in 40 years, I won't have to deal with any of it. I feel sorry for today's first-graders."
My older daughter is a first grader. My younger is a preschooler.
I can't accept defeat. Resignation is not an option. We have to push for solutions. There's too much at stake not to. The politicians must be made to understand this. Even the stupid, greedy denialist ones. The odds are long and the chances slim, but we can't give in. We have to try.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 6:53 AM on March 14, 2014 [6 favorites]
Oh huzzah, the continued ignorant conflation of weather with climate!
I've seen that conflation a lot (on both sides, but mostly on the denial side--"It's cold, QED!"), but I didn't read her as being particularly guilty of it, despite her focus on weather.
Climate change is a matter of changes in long-term averages of daily weather, right? So although no isolated episode of flooding or drought is the kind of thing that could be evidence for climate change, if those events belong to discernible long-term patterns of change, it doesn't seem bogus to point them out as characteristic features of the longer-term phenomenon.
That's how I interpreted her use of specific examples, anyway.
posted by Beardman at 7:01 AM on March 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
I've seen that conflation a lot (on both sides, but mostly on the denial side--"It's cold, QED!"), but I didn't read her as being particularly guilty of it, despite her focus on weather.
Climate change is a matter of changes in long-term averages of daily weather, right? So although no isolated episode of flooding or drought is the kind of thing that could be evidence for climate change, if those events belong to discernible long-term patterns of change, it doesn't seem bogus to point them out as characteristic features of the longer-term phenomenon.
That's how I interpreted her use of specific examples, anyway.
posted by Beardman at 7:01 AM on March 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
"Sending a selfie of yourself in a noreaster is not really fresh evidence of climate change."
- threeblindmice
"Hedgehog populations in the UK have sadly declined by a lot in recent years but they were never as commonly and routinely found in gardens as Zadie suggests by her phrasing."
- Bwithh
"It’s amazing the side roads you can will yourself down to avoid the four-lane motorway ahead."
- Zadie Smith
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:09 AM on March 14, 2014 [17 favorites]
- threeblindmice
"Hedgehog populations in the UK have sadly declined by a lot in recent years but they were never as commonly and routinely found in gardens as Zadie suggests by her phrasing."
- Bwithh
"It’s amazing the side roads you can will yourself down to avoid the four-lane motorway ahead."
- Zadie Smith
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:09 AM on March 14, 2014 [17 favorites]
"I will be dead in 40 years, I won't have to deal with any of it. I feel sorry for today's first-graders."
My older daughter is a first grader. My younger is a preschooler.
Yeah, this is the aspect I find the most scary. I recently posted a question on AskMe about whether current climate science should influence our decision to have kids, out of consideration for the quality of life of the kids themselves. I phrased it as a question about whether it was ethically permissible to reproduce, but in retrospect I should've asked something softer, like whether it was compassionate with respect to my possible future child. That's really more what I was wondering. Anyway, if you're interested, I tallied up all the arguments people made against my pessimism here.
posted by Beardman at 7:16 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
My older daughter is a first grader. My younger is a preschooler.
Yeah, this is the aspect I find the most scary. I recently posted a question on AskMe about whether current climate science should influence our decision to have kids, out of consideration for the quality of life of the kids themselves. I phrased it as a question about whether it was ethically permissible to reproduce, but in retrospect I should've asked something softer, like whether it was compassionate with respect to my possible future child. That's really more what I was wondering. Anyway, if you're interested, I tallied up all the arguments people made against my pessimism here.
posted by Beardman at 7:16 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
But unfortunately Zadie Smith seems to play fast and loose with the facts (poetic license, I get it... But given the topic, maybe try for accuracy and consistency with the weather references a bit more?)
I think you're being obstinately literal, here. She's talking about our shifting perception of what "normal" is. Would one expect it to be hot at a certain time of year, is snow a rarity or to be expected. To say "yes, but it was hot during carnival last year" misses the point, the same as all those people who cackle about how "global warming" isn't real every time it snows in January.
The whole thing she's talking about is our instinctive understand, our folk knowledge, of what normal is. That's by definition a slippery thing. But you can't simply point to the high temp for a given day and say "thus I refute thee!"
posted by Diablevert at 7:18 AM on March 14, 2014 [13 favorites]
I think you're being obstinately literal, here. She's talking about our shifting perception of what "normal" is. Would one expect it to be hot at a certain time of year, is snow a rarity or to be expected. To say "yes, but it was hot during carnival last year" misses the point, the same as all those people who cackle about how "global warming" isn't real every time it snows in January.
The whole thing she's talking about is our instinctive understand, our folk knowledge, of what normal is. That's by definition a slippery thing. But you can't simply point to the high temp for a given day and say "thus I refute thee!"
posted by Diablevert at 7:18 AM on March 14, 2014 [13 favorites]
It's weird because I don't remember a lot of people arguing over which in particular of Bonds' 73 home runs were caused by steroids.
posted by one_bean at 7:24 AM on March 14, 2014 [8 favorites]
posted by one_bean at 7:24 AM on March 14, 2014 [8 favorites]
The whole thing she's talking about is our instinctive understand, our folk knowledge, of what normal is. That's by definition a slippery thing. But you can't simply point to the high temp for a given day and say "thus I refute thee!"
Well put. Our folk knowledge should not be discounted.
I live in the northern US. Birds used to fly south for the winter and a robin-sighting would indicate the approach of spring. I've seen robins all winter, though fewer when it became real harsh outside.
My car got covered in bird shit when I parked next to a tree in January of this year. That would be unheard of in the winters of my youth (not that I had a car at age 8 or anything). What damage is that doing on the southern US ecosystem, that fewer birds migrate? More bugs, more disease? More old ladies with excess bread? Joking aside, it doesn't seem healthy.
And what is less healthy is that tired old "what global warming?" joke.
posted by GrapeApiary at 8:22 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
Well put. Our folk knowledge should not be discounted.
I live in the northern US. Birds used to fly south for the winter and a robin-sighting would indicate the approach of spring. I've seen robins all winter, though fewer when it became real harsh outside.
My car got covered in bird shit when I parked next to a tree in January of this year. That would be unheard of in the winters of my youth (not that I had a car at age 8 or anything). What damage is that doing on the southern US ecosystem, that fewer birds migrate? More bugs, more disease? More old ladies with excess bread? Joking aside, it doesn't seem healthy.
And what is less healthy is that tired old "what global warming?" joke.
posted by GrapeApiary at 8:22 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
...even the most hubristic among us had not imagined we would ever be able to fundamentally change its rhythms and character, just as a child who has screamed all day at her father still does not expect to see him lie down on the kitchen floor and weep.
Off to read that unread Zadie Smith novel on my shelf now.
posted by rory at 8:26 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
Off to read that unread Zadie Smith novel on my shelf now.
posted by rory at 8:26 AM on March 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
That was lyrical and she has a good point, when it becomes personal, maybe people will finally take action. Reposted on my FB wall, maybe chip away at the few deniers that are left on my friends list.
posted by arcticseal at 9:21 AM on March 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by arcticseal at 9:21 AM on March 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
People are very, very poor at forming accurate memories of typical weather patterns. They get profoundly reshaped by all kinds of preformed cultural narratives. I remember when I lived in Montreal in 1989 and we went through the coldest December on record. The coldest ever recorded. That means that there was not a single person alive in Montreal who had been through a colder December or a December as cold. And yet, almost every native Montrealer (and New Englander) I knew assured me repeatedly throughout that frigid month that "this was what Decembers were always like when I was a kid." Not one of them, no matter how old, was even close to remembering correctly, and yet they were all quite certain that this was typical of their childhood experience.
I think that malleability of our memory to fit certain cultural narratives ultimately makes this "when it becomes personal we'll act" idea problematic--and that in two different ways. For one thing, we're already generating narratives of "personal effect" which aren't, actually, all that related to what climate change has yet wrought. But more troublingly, as the climate does steadily change, our cultural narratives around what is "ordinary" (and our corresponding 'memories') can change too. We've seen some of that already in the US this winter when people are shocked to experience snow in places where it used to be a much less infrequent occurrence. That is, just as we can tell ourselves, "December was always end-to-end snow and ice" even when it wasn't, we can learn to tell ourselves "it never used to snow here!" even when it did.
posted by yoink at 9:55 AM on March 14, 2014 [8 favorites]
I think that malleability of our memory to fit certain cultural narratives ultimately makes this "when it becomes personal we'll act" idea problematic--and that in two different ways. For one thing, we're already generating narratives of "personal effect" which aren't, actually, all that related to what climate change has yet wrought. But more troublingly, as the climate does steadily change, our cultural narratives around what is "ordinary" (and our corresponding 'memories') can change too. We've seen some of that already in the US this winter when people are shocked to experience snow in places where it used to be a much less infrequent occurrence. That is, just as we can tell ourselves, "December was always end-to-end snow and ice" even when it wasn't, we can learn to tell ourselves "it never used to snow here!" even when it did.
posted by yoink at 9:55 AM on March 14, 2014 [8 favorites]
I went to jr. high school with a friend who grew up to be a world-renowned climate researcher whose work on species migration was a apparently a pretty large puzzle piece validating the theory of global warming. We still stay nominally in touch. I asked her in about 2004 how bad it was -- her (paraphrased) quote was "If we stop generating ALL greenhouse gasses tomorrow, the average temperatures might sop rising in 100 years."
The reason she said "might" is due to the methane releases in the arctic tundra that we can't necessarily do anything about. So, at this point, even stopping all human greenhouse emissions might not necessarily do any good if arctic methane is past a tipping point because it's such a potent heat-trapping gas. I don't know how bad the methane thing has gotten since 2004 when we talked about this.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:56 AM on March 14, 2014
The reason she said "might" is due to the methane releases in the arctic tundra that we can't necessarily do anything about. So, at this point, even stopping all human greenhouse emissions might not necessarily do any good if arctic methane is past a tipping point because it's such a potent heat-trapping gas. I don't know how bad the methane thing has gotten since 2004 when we talked about this.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:56 AM on March 14, 2014
People are very, very poor at forming accurate memories of typical weather patterns....I think that malleability of our memory to fit certain cultural narratives ultimately makes this "when it becomes personal we'll act" idea problematic...just as we can tell ourselves, "December was always end-to-end snow and ice" even when it wasn't, we can learn to tell ourselves "it never used to snow here!" even when it did.
I agree that memory's play-dough. But all the same, all the stats and dire warnings in the world seem to have done little to wear away at people's hearts. In large part this may be because of the helpless futility many feel, as seen in the thread. But it's also to do with the fact that without a palpable sense of loss, what is there to spur action? When people first started talking about this stuff 25 years ago, there were plenty of hack comics with jokes about spraying aerosol cans into the air to spur climate change on, because who wants more winter, amirite? It was all just an abstraction.
posted by Diablevert at 11:09 AM on March 14, 2014
I agree that memory's play-dough. But all the same, all the stats and dire warnings in the world seem to have done little to wear away at people's hearts. In large part this may be because of the helpless futility many feel, as seen in the thread. But it's also to do with the fact that without a palpable sense of loss, what is there to spur action? When people first started talking about this stuff 25 years ago, there were plenty of hack comics with jokes about spraying aerosol cans into the air to spur climate change on, because who wants more winter, amirite? It was all just an abstraction.
posted by Diablevert at 11:09 AM on March 14, 2014
Yeah, its far too late to stop this process. It's hard for many people to accept, but its the truth. Now the world will only be able to battle against how MUCH suffering goes around until the end.
posted by agregoli at 11:10 AM on March 14, 2014
posted by agregoli at 11:10 AM on March 14, 2014
Yeah, its far too late to stop this process. It's hard for many people to accept, but its the truth. Now the world will only be able to battle against how MUCH suffering goes around until the end.
on this note I found this article about Aspen and how it was grappling with a future without snow to be fascinating, and somewhat frustrating. The initial parts of the article are full of a sweet techno-utopianism that makes you pine for the days when we believed that we really could stop global warming by just recycling better and riding more bikes, but then it descends into a nitty gritty fight about trying to setup a hydroelectric dam to get the town completely onto renewable energy. Their unlikely opponents were other enviromentalists who have basically accepted that the warm future is inevitable, and a hydro dam will just accelerate the demise of the ecosystem in the surrounding watershed.
The TL;DR is: in the future expect that environmentalist camps will be split between the people who are still trying to stop or reverse climate change, and those who have accepted that the climate change fight is lost and now we have to fight an extended rearguard action against a warmer planet. And expect that this split will be exploited to maximum effect by energy lobbyists who don't care and just want to maximize their profits while the world burns.
posted by bl1nk at 11:25 AM on March 14, 2014 [7 favorites]
on this note I found this article about Aspen and how it was grappling with a future without snow to be fascinating, and somewhat frustrating. The initial parts of the article are full of a sweet techno-utopianism that makes you pine for the days when we believed that we really could stop global warming by just recycling better and riding more bikes, but then it descends into a nitty gritty fight about trying to setup a hydroelectric dam to get the town completely onto renewable energy. Their unlikely opponents were other enviromentalists who have basically accepted that the warm future is inevitable, and a hydro dam will just accelerate the demise of the ecosystem in the surrounding watershed.
The TL;DR is: in the future expect that environmentalist camps will be split between the people who are still trying to stop or reverse climate change, and those who have accepted that the climate change fight is lost and now we have to fight an extended rearguard action against a warmer planet. And expect that this split will be exploited to maximum effect by energy lobbyists who don't care and just want to maximize their profits while the world burns.
posted by bl1nk at 11:25 AM on March 14, 2014 [7 favorites]
I can't accept defeat. Resignation is not an option. We have to push for solutions. There's too much at stake not to. The politicians must be made to understand this. Even the stupid, greedy denialist ones. The odds are long and the chances slim, but we can't give in. We have to try.
The thing is, this isn't resignation. This is simple fact. "Commitment To Climate Change" is the term used for the lag between the greenhouse gas levels we are currently at today and the time it takes for their presence to take effect. Even if we cut global greenhouse gas emissions to ZERO tomorrow, we have to live with the effects of what we've already pumped into the atmosphere as the effect from them takes hold over the next 30-50 years.
If we wanted true mitigation of our troubles, we should have listened to the alarmists who were speaking out in the 1970s. We didn't. We are committed. All we can do at this point is develop strategies which allow us to continue to grow food as growing zones change and pollinators suffer from the effects of climate change across the globe.
posted by hippybear at 3:18 PM on March 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
The thing is, this isn't resignation. This is simple fact. "Commitment To Climate Change" is the term used for the lag between the greenhouse gas levels we are currently at today and the time it takes for their presence to take effect. Even if we cut global greenhouse gas emissions to ZERO tomorrow, we have to live with the effects of what we've already pumped into the atmosphere as the effect from them takes hold over the next 30-50 years.
If we wanted true mitigation of our troubles, we should have listened to the alarmists who were speaking out in the 1970s. We didn't. We are committed. All we can do at this point is develop strategies which allow us to continue to grow food as growing zones change and pollinators suffer from the effects of climate change across the globe.
posted by hippybear at 3:18 PM on March 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
As if we didn't have enough to deal with already, these are two different things:
The Year Without a Summer
The Little Ice Age
posted by sneebler at 5:08 PM on March 14, 2014
The Year Without a Summer
The Little Ice Age
posted by sneebler at 5:08 PM on March 14, 2014
Hippybear, I wish we would start listening to the scientists who are speaking out today.
posted by sneebler at 5:09 PM on March 14, 2014
posted by sneebler at 5:09 PM on March 14, 2014
Maybe we should start sending this U.S. National Academy of Sciences brochure about climate change to our politicians and asking how they're planning to respond?
posted by sneebler at 5:23 PM on March 14, 2014
posted by sneebler at 5:23 PM on March 14, 2014
Hippybear, I wish we would start listening to the scientists who are speaking out today.
That would alleviate even increased levels of problems in the future beyond the scope of my lifetime. And would be excellent. But we aren't, and we likely won't. Fear of causing economic disruption in the present keeps those who hold power from acting now, at the sacrifice for much greater economic and societal distruption a generation or two in the future. Better to let those living after the current power structure is dead suffer than to have those currently living suffer even a minor inconvenience or degradation to their lifestyle in order to benefit future generations.
We lack imagination and courage and fortitude. A major shift in quality of life is required. We can do it voluntarily or have it happen to us. It's going to happen regardless, thanks to our commitment to climate change. Whether we continue beyond what is currently forecast or not lies in our control. But we won't do anything about that in any way which has a meaningful impact within my lifetime. Too much of the current power and economic structure is bound up in ignoring all the warning signs and voices who have been crying from the wilderness. Once collapse begins, mitigation measures will begin, far too late to affect change, and coping measures will begin to be instigated, maybe in time, maybe not.
I sound defeatist and pessimistic. I am not. I am determined to dance and laugh and love while I have the strength and food to do so. I just don't think things will be danceable and laugh-worthy and love-inspiring much beyond the length of my lifespan. I won't be surprised if they get bad within my expected lifespan, actually. We've fucked ourselves, plain and simple. Realist outlook is not pessimism. It is simply what is.
posted by hippybear at 9:25 PM on March 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
That would alleviate even increased levels of problems in the future beyond the scope of my lifetime. And would be excellent. But we aren't, and we likely won't. Fear of causing economic disruption in the present keeps those who hold power from acting now, at the sacrifice for much greater economic and societal distruption a generation or two in the future. Better to let those living after the current power structure is dead suffer than to have those currently living suffer even a minor inconvenience or degradation to their lifestyle in order to benefit future generations.
We lack imagination and courage and fortitude. A major shift in quality of life is required. We can do it voluntarily or have it happen to us. It's going to happen regardless, thanks to our commitment to climate change. Whether we continue beyond what is currently forecast or not lies in our control. But we won't do anything about that in any way which has a meaningful impact within my lifetime. Too much of the current power and economic structure is bound up in ignoring all the warning signs and voices who have been crying from the wilderness. Once collapse begins, mitigation measures will begin, far too late to affect change, and coping measures will begin to be instigated, maybe in time, maybe not.
I sound defeatist and pessimistic. I am not. I am determined to dance and laugh and love while I have the strength and food to do so. I just don't think things will be danceable and laugh-worthy and love-inspiring much beyond the length of my lifespan. I won't be surprised if they get bad within my expected lifespan, actually. We've fucked ourselves, plain and simple. Realist outlook is not pessimism. It is simply what is.
posted by hippybear at 9:25 PM on March 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
The New Spring, Brought To You By Climate Change, In Five Charts
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:03 AM on March 21, 2014
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:03 AM on March 21, 2014
Journal pulls paper due to “legal context” created by climate contrarians: Climate bloggers studied by psychologist find his conclusions defamatory.
posted by homunculus at 12:25 PM on March 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by homunculus at 12:25 PM on March 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
The climate change deniers have won: Scientists continue to warn us about global warming, but most of us have a vested interest in not wanting to think about it
posted by homunculus at 4:56 PM on March 29, 2014
posted by homunculus at 4:56 PM on March 29, 2014
Climate impacts 'overwhelming' [says] UN (BBC) covering Climate Change 2014 : Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:14 AM on April 1, 2014
posted by jeffburdges at 2:14 AM on April 1, 2014
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posted by jokeefe at 9:07 PM on March 13, 2014