Honestly I've entered a bit of an acceptance of it at this point. I know that it's slowly killing me and will likely give me some kind of cancer or disease that I won't be able to afford but in the most literal sense there's nothing I can do. I was born into a world already poisoned, which poison ends up being what does me in is almost irrelevant. Will it be the microplastics doing something fucked up? Will it be the asbestos or lead I was exposed to? Will it be something in the food, water, or air? Will it be from a preventable disease that gets ignored because line must go up? Will it be from the alcohol I drink to numb myself to the horrors of it all? Or will I just be worked until my body breaks down? I do what I can involving eating decently and exercising so it's not like I've completely given up but there is a hollow feeling of going for a run just to suck in some car exhaust as I'm doing it. I'd probably be way more anxious if there was an actual escape from it all but it just feels so inevitable that I've entered a sort of zen state about total world shitification
I mean I definitely have my monkey brain moments. When I really sit and reflect on climate change I get a deep existential dread that's pretty hard to shake. I have my own struggles and anxieties surrounding addiction so I understand you there. Especially considering how many of my family succumbed to their various addictions. I know it's not good for me and will likely shorten my life but it's already been shortened outside of my control. At least getting drunk is a nice feeling in the present
I remember working in horticulture and opening bags of all sorts of chemical garbage that we probably should have had protective equipment for.
Same job left electric fan heaters running overnight unattended next to damp sprouting seedlings in order to incubate them
I might never sleep properly again. But no, they need me at 6 am every day.
Yes, though in a mild way. I'm pretty healthy to start but the desk job I've been working for the past year is definitely starting to take its toll. You can get up and stretch, take eye breaks, fill your measly after-work time with a gym routine, but there's no comparison to how active I was when I wasn't working, only working part time, or working outside. I can feel it slowly eroding my physical and especially mental health, and I'm going to need to quit when I save up a bit of money.
Nothing compared to my anxiety about the planet though like /u/emizeko mentioned. Part of the reason I really want to keep my body in proper shape is to be able to handle, for as long as I stay alive, the unimaginable difficulties down the road as we tumble into the abyss.
yeah worked as a roofer with glue or melting plasticy membrane fumes all day and wonder the same thing
I work as an outside contractor and consultant for industrial manufacturing places like factories and such. Sounds fancy, but really what I do is fix machines when the inhouse maintenance department can't figure it out. What all that means is that I have to go to different places every day, sometimes multiple places a day.
I've accepted that there are inherent dangers to my job. I spend a lot of my time driving to and from places. Driving is incredibly dangerous, more so when you're in a heavy truck full of tools. Some of the places I go to are very dangerous too. Steel mills especially. However, I go miles outside of my way to ensure that I am safe. I wear full face respirators and protective clothing, even in places where it isnt a requirement.
But the one thing this job has shown me more than anything is that there is no such thing as a "standard of safety". The unbelievable working conditions that people are willing to put up with blows my mind. Some places quite literally do not care about their employees at all. OSHA is a joke. Killing or maiming a worker is the cost of doing business to these places. It's appalling.
I just think about how dumb it is that everyone either stands all day or sits all day
