Climate: The Case for Conditional Optimism
March 29, 2019 8:49 AM   Subscribe

This exploration of both the case for pessimism, and the case for optimism, in the face of climate change, walks us through both perspectives in a straight forward way. As momentum builds, this case study of ecosystem restoration also lends inspiration on how to approach this massive issue.
posted by TruthfulCalling (9 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 


Oh, thank you for posting. I can't wait to dig in.

I often think about how quickly an area can recover when it is left alone or given just the smallest reprieve from damaging practices. Maybe that is because I farm in Wisconsin with rich soil and a precipitation-generous climate.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:22 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


Ecosystem restoration means nothing long term without a halt to population growth and an ultimate decline in the number of humans on this planet.
posted by fshgrl at 5:06 PM on March 29, 2019 [3 favorites]


Sometimes I feel like the most optimistic I can get about climate change is the thought that it will kill off humanity long before it kills off all life on Earth, and given ten thousand years or so it will be as if we were never here.

I'm glad there are other more optimistic possibilities than that.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:36 PM on March 29, 2019 [5 favorites]


I feel like Brexit is kind of a foretaste of what's to come. Hopefully the penguins and elephants make it. We're not going to because apparently we are too dumb.
posted by fshgrl at 7:19 PM on March 29, 2019


my guarded optimism might be direr still: humans will (brutally) survive climate change.

don't mean to diminish the terrible promise of megadeath-scale human and ecological catastrophe, but it is our institutions, lifestyles, our lore and technologies, our cultural works and cultures, our arbitrary associations that are threatened with destruction. so, yay: go team.
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:57 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


Ecosystem restoration means nothing long term without a halt to population growth and an ultimate decline in the number of humans on this planet.
posted by fshgrl at 5:06 PM on March 29 [1 favorite +] [!]

feminism is halting population growth, that one is not so much the issue anymore
posted by eustatic at 9:28 PM on March 29, 2019 [4 favorites]


85M new people each year. It's 100% still an issue.
posted by fshgrl at 9:07 PM on March 30, 2019




« Older 71 Year Old Woman Cannot Feel Pain, Anxiety, or...   |   there’s nothing about your money that makes you... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments