Climate Thoughts of the Day: No, This Is Not “The End”
Hi everyone, I hope you’re all well.
Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of asks from people who are concerned about various climate and environmental disasters around the world.
Let me just say: you are absolutely right to be concerned and scared. I’m concerned and scared - that’s why I engage in climate activism, and that’s why I run this blog. There are a lot of terrible things happening around the world, and a lot of people are dying unnecessarily because of these disasters.
Because of this, a lot of people - perhaps understandably - look at what is happening around the world in terms of the climate emergency, and tell themselves that these disasters spell “the end” for the world, or for humanity or human society. A lot of people think that these disasters are only the beginning of a global crisis which will one day inevitably end the world.
This crisis that we are in is extremely serious. It is deadly for many people, and we are still not at the stage where the action we need to see is being taken. And some degree of climate change is already, unfortunately, locked in.
But, with all of this in mind, “the end” is not here.
Since the beginning of human society, and even before, we have always had to experience environmental disasters. Climate change is now making those disasters more frequent and more severe. That is the truth.
But these disasters, however serious and deadly they are, are not “the end”. Singular events, or events in one or a few countries, do not mean that the end of the world is here. And they certainly do not mean that we have to give up on climate and environmental action - if anything, to save more lives and protect more people, they mean that we must fight harder for climate and environmental justice, and think and act with the future in mind.
I always like to think of this crisis as a house on fire. If your house is on fire, would you just sit and watch it all burn? Or would you try your absolute best to save everything you possibly can? Even if it’s too late to save *everything* in your house, you still have to give it everything you’ve got, otherwise you’ll be left with nothing.
Instead of seeing these disasters as “the end”, we need to treat this crisis like a house on fire - that is, we have to look at ways to both mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. In the future, we may have to build our societies with the climate crisis in mind - that means building houses, buildings and infrastructure with increased flood defences, or on higher ground, for example. We will also have to continue to work towards decarbonisation and move away from fossil fuels worldwide - this is something that must be done, and soon.
Please, if you’re reading this, do not give up on the future or assume that the end of the world is already here. The planet is not going to be fixed or saved, nor are potentially millions of lives going to be saved, by fatalism or a “let’s all just party until the apocalypse” mentality - the future needs the skills and the empathy and the hope and, indeed, the well-directed fear of climate-concerned and climate-aware people.
This isn’t the end. Not yet. Not for the planet, or for humans, or for you. Keep your head up, stay strong, and think about ways in which you can one day use your skills, whatever they may be, to help to create a better future or to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
People that are like “climate change is worsening and all of humanity is going to deserve it” should realize how kind of evil and insane of a thing that is to say
Like, no actually, the masses of people in the world that are impoverished, homeless, poor and working paycheck to paycheck to survive, plus the masses of indigenous folks, POC, queer and religious minorities trying to survive the trauma of generations of industrialization & colonization DON’T deserve to go extinct over the actions of a few dozen oil executives and an economic system we have no control over, especially when we’re doing all that we can for a safer healthier planet wtf
The lives of 7 billion humans do not deserve extinction over the actions of very few oil companies destroying the planet, don’t say shit like that.
Character paintings for “Hotel Transformania” and also seen in “Monster Pets”. Characters Poochiestein and Diablo designed by Craig Kellman and painted by me.
Tl;dr : There’s a new drug that will come out on the US market, but it won’t be available till august. The ALS has created a fund called the “Home Health Care Initiative” to help patients like him. You can donate here.
You know the drill, if you can’t donate, reblog! <3
Liberals love to ask “where’s the revolution?” as if it isn’t actively unfolding around them. Kinda hard to see that from the suburbs or the comfort of your gentrified neighborhood I guess.
People tend to have a very ‘event’-centric definition of revolution that primarily positions outbursts of revolutionary violence as the only activity or condition of revolution. Yes, overthrowing a ruling class and dismantling its hegemonic institutions is revolution but so was all the community organizing that preceded and supported it. The goal of a revolution is not to merely replace leaders but to transform social and economic relations.
Whole apartment complexes organizing collectively as tenants to make demands of landlords and property management companies through rent strikes during a historic pandemic? Neighbors emergency mobilizing to give out water and shelter during now seasonal weather crises? The millions of dollars lost in every major city due to the anti-police uprisings last year? That’s not just the beginning or preamble of a revolution but a revolution actively in motion. A significant portion of this country was in open rebellion against the state last year, something many of you would’ve also considered impossible before 2020. Even as protests have slowed down the infrastructure built to sustain those protests hasn’t and have directed their efforts towards providing food, water and other services to the working class and the homeless, whose need has only exponentially grown since the pandemic.
Revolutions never begin with armed conflict but they develop towards that eventuality out of necessity as the contradiction between the struggle to totally transform social and economic relations and the bourgeoisie’s class interests in maintaining the status quo cannot be resolved without an armed conflict. In other words, the more we agitate for improvements in our material conditions the more the ruling class will suppress us by force eventually making revolution the only option left to the working class and oppressed peoples of this country.
Liberals ask “where’s the revolution?” when I see it during every crisis, on every street, in every community, every day. As the climate emergency progresses, fascist paramilitaries and police continue to escalate in their genocidal violence, and the state further retreats from anything resembling crisis management the conditions in place now that led so many millions to open rebellion will also escalate. Revolution is around the corner, you’re already seeing it.
Revolution doesn’t have to end in violence either, We just have to create a monumental change
Nah I’m sorry but the violence is an inevitable end result of advocating for change. The ruling class will sooner kill you than allow any substantial changes in our conditions. Don’t defang radicalism, revolutionary violence is a necessary response to the daily violences of the state. The violence is already here, a war is being waged against us and we have no army.
The size of the dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay has gone down for the second year in a row.
Dead zones occur due to extra nutrients entering the bay from upstream (often from fertilizer runoff), which leads to massive algae blooms
This reduction is likely due to a number of factors, including better management and monitoring of the watershed by a variety of upstream states and other organizations.
Conservation begins at the local level, and this is an excellent example of some good news for an iconic ecosystem.
Seeing all these Twitter memes about the new Nick game, has been probably the very time Nickelodeon was positively talked about on Twitter in a long time
Also hyped that we finally getting a platform fighter rather then a street fighter est thing
Yep, it’s been a fun and refreshing day for me. I’m especially glad we finally have a genuine Nick-themed Smash clone. The Street Fighter ones were fine, but there’s only so much you can do with that formula, so it was a good time to change things up.
I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.
dude.
$2,714 of medical debt from my top surgery - gone. im shaking this was such a weight on me for 2 years and it fucking worked. what the fuck.
re-reblogging and thinking about when i have another collection agency calling that i can just do this
