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I’m sure you may have seen a lot of “how to inoculate yourself against climate disinformation” posts, but we’re experiencing a huge amount of content paid for by Fossil Fuel Interest’s to put pressure on the internet. And it’s been really concentrated for a few months.
The funding is pushing for a cultural shift for people who are undecided in the climate conversation and are possibly more easily swayed. And it’s important to remember, fossil fuel interests wouldn’t pay for it if they didn’t need it.
Most of the disinfo looks like “yeah climate change is real but we can’t possibly do anything to fix it” or “these solutions simply don’t work.” about solutions that are tried and true. They look a lot like nuanced takes, but specifically are trying to motivate inaction.
So if you wake up today and ask “what can I do today that makes a difference?” is honestly post a lot to tip the scales regarding the presentation climate solutions. Silly or serious, for example posting about renewables getting you excited, community food forests that are feeding people, cool solutions to targeting methane, etc. Post about a climate book or show you liked, or whatever. Just make sure it’s clear to an onlooker that there are people who believe climate change is anthropogenic, it was mostly caused by extractive practices and fossil fuel use, and that we can still demand rapid action to fix it. And all of this is true, because the science supports it.
What is weird to me is that the technical solutions are there. They are known, they are old. And they are opposed.
As an engineer I would like to help, but after being asked to sign a petition against nuclear power, against a solar power plant, against electric vehicles, and hearing environmentalists complain about wind turbines, stating batteries will never be a solution, inventing resources depletion problems (for non-fossil materials there is zero depletion problem) I am really wondering if we do want to solve the problems.
There are many scenarios towards a renewable future that are totally doable. From the “business as usual, just replace fossils with renewable electricity” to an ungrowth scenario, a whole spectrum in between and for all a nuclear option depending on your preferences, it is only a matter of political will.
There are currently no technical solutions. Asserting that there are is the same as saying, “Anthropogenic global warming is easy to solve, if it weren’t for all the people.” We need holistic solutions that incorporate technical, political, and social approaches.
You are disagreeing with the IPCC then. It provides strategies to fight the climate change using only today’s technologies. We have the tech for clean electricity production and alternative for almost every fossil fuel use out there: electricity for most, biofuel for a few remaining ones.
Yours is just one of many versions of ‘why I personally don’t do anything’: I’m all for change, but the others don’t want!
Society will never be fully aligned on the solutions and you cannot expect everyone to agree with you, but you still can work for your preferred solutions in smaller groups?
I do many things but the impact is limited. I switched to heat pump and soon to EV but I can’t change my country’s electric mix by myself. Indeed, the others don’t want. Because it would be easy if they would. I’ll continue vote and support people who want to solve this and to be fair, we are getting there, just too slowly.
That’s fine: I am working on other changes as an engineer, trying to make AI and robotics veer away from a dystopian timeline. There are other fights where I am more useful
