Well yeah, it affects me, in my air conditioned, water-from-the-tap, temperate climate, stable government home much less than it affects Burmese, Bangladeshi, Congolese, Moldovan and Bolivian sub-working class women and children.
I’ve been talking to my parents about this for 30 years.
They can see the winters are fucked up. They can see the frequency of natural disasters increasing. They say the climate changed since they were kids.
Yet, when I’m the one saying it, they reply that we will see, there are no concrete effects yet, electricification is a scam, etc. It’s so disappointing to hear.
I mean… Mathematically, it does? You’re just 1 single person vs billions of people who are not you. Of course it’s going to primarily affect others.
That’s not a reason to ignore it though. If you have any morals at all, it’s a reason to actively fight it.
Isn’t it going to worst affect people living in the Global South and near the equator?
And Europe if/when it affects the Gulf Stream.
People available to be easily surveyed are probably on average more privileged and therefore less vulnerable.
Lol really? That’s wild. I guess it also explains a lot…
Most people primarily believe everything bad effects others because they’ve been sheltered their whole life
I think it’s a bit of a “head in sand” thing too. You don’t want to believe that your home or livelihood could be destroyed, or that you or your loved ones could die, in a disaster, and/or you don’t want to take drastic actions out of fear, apathy, or feeling powerless to make any meaningful change.
Having a peak of 40ºC in the summer around here used to be something extraordinary, and used be in the news and in most conversations. In the last few years, having a sustained temperature above 40 for several hours during the day became the new normal and people still think that climate change is something far away…
Such idiots need to add a word - It affects others also. You are not special, you are not immune, and you are also fucked.
I just went to lunch in Michigan in a t-shirt.
I wholehearted agree. In conversation a concept people don’t instinctively understand, is that the world is dominated by global trade. It’s largely been great, but it exacts its own price in a way few understand - A globalized world means that a problem anywhere is a problem everywhere.
E.g. Russia invades Ukraine. Ukraine wheat shipments stop. Egypt can’t get the wheat they contracted for. Egypt seeks out global markets for a solution. Global markets don’t have a Ukraine’s worth of wheat to spare so we ration by price. Price goes up globally, inflation smacks global population in the face. Poor people get skinnier.
Now with climate change, and the geopolitical shenanigans being driven by it, what happens to food markets when war, trade blockades or droughts and floods hit two major producing regions at the same time?
I read an article a while back on edge.org called “What should we really be worried about?” A fascinating read with multiple interesting thinkers and ideas. One answer was so brief but enlightning, it will forever be burned into my brain. “Too much coupling” by Steven Strogatz, a Cornell math prof.
Now I think about how coupled global food markets are and what that entails over the anticipated challenges of ecological overshoot.
In the geopolitical shitstorm we are all now in, we are all going to feel, in very real ways what too much coupling is going to feel like.
A problem anywhere, is a problem everywhere. Deglobalization will be very, very painful for everyone. Thanks to the US, it is hapenning in all haste.
I wholehearted agree. In conversation a concept people don’t instinctively understand, is that the world is dominated by global trade. It’s largely been great, but it exacts its own price in a way few understand - A globalized world means that a problem anywhere is a problem everywhere.
Exactly.
Imagine that climate change leads to really bad harvests in South East Asia, so much that there is famine in China. People still seem to be reassured by the fact that the Western G7 / OECD countries are on average more wealthy than people in China, so them seem to think that they will pay a bit more for food and people elsewhere will starve, because these poor people can’t compete with them on food prices.
But that’s not what would happen. In lieu of rice, Chinese people would buy wheat on international markets. And while the average Chinese family is still poorer than the average American one, China, which has a billion of people, has a middle class which might be one hundred million strong. And these people would out-compete poor Americans on the food markets, I guess.
Which would result in famine in the US and major political instability.
I mean it does scare the fuck out of me how much better the weather is here but also how necessary snow is for proper soil hydration.
I live on a tiny island. I’m terrified.
Was this study made on people who live outside the primarily affected areas?
Ironic comment
