Consumers are collectively to blame. We need to deal with personal inconveniences en mass and Make difficult life changes like not driving whenever possible, not eating meat, not buying new products, repairing and sharing. The corporations only survive at the hand of the consumer.
i don't think most people are laboring under the illusion that the world will be okay, just the illusion that they and their local community will be okay
I don't know anymore.. I'm more confused about the severity of climate change as time goes on.
Climate change is not a big deal if the life a person is expecting to live is only a slightly more stressful version of a life without climate change (I think this is where we are currently). It is a big deal if it has the same degree of impact of that a mental health disorder might have - work, relationships, and overall lifestyle are significantly impacted and that person needs to make major adjustments to learn to live with it. I don't see a middle ground here, but I'm also not thinking that hard about it.
I don't know where we are going. And yes... I know the world is a big place and some people are going to feel the worst aspects, but to keep things simple (and relevant) I'm only thinking of other "middle" class Canadians living in large urban centers. If this argument takes into account every person on earth then the answer is just going to be a meaningless 'yes'.
Edit: I'm eager to hear from people about this. If you have something to say please share.
I had a conversation with a friend. A well educated friend, who has devoted his life to the cause
He thought he was fighting for his children or grandchildren. I told him no, we've been saying that for two generations - this is our problem. We will feel the hurt. Your water supply is not guaranteed, our food so supply could run dry one year. Our parents were told this was a future generation problem - we're that generation... This is already happening
In the US, in the EU - some places are already feeling it, but we will all feel it soon
Famine, war, collapse of civilisation, rise of warlords, loss of knowledge. Everywhere. Within our lifetimes.
Just look at the first of those and the rest follow. Think about how likely it is that our civilisation will be able to grow crops in the quantity it has up until recently, even five years from now, given the increased frequency and severity of extreme climate events.
If only CO2's warming properties had been discovered in 1856. If only good models of global warming had been created in 1896. If only those had happened, maybe society could have taken more substantial actions...
Wait until the permafrost melts and releases its trapped methane. If you think the existing CO2 models are disturbing we're in for something much more rapidly catastrophic.