I'm fairly convinced that the status quo can do nothing to prevent the collapse of complex industrial society. Obviously it's a complicated topic, but if you assume the position that by 2030 there will be dramatic, uncontrollable warming of the planet (and all of the side effects that will bring), what is to be done to prevent that?
As a guy with a decent work-from-home kind of job (for now) and enough resources to be comfortable, it's been incredibly tempting during quarantine to think about building a house off the grid, finding a stable source of drinking water, and building a sustainable farming homestead in rural America. 2020 has demonstrated that things don't always just work out. I'm worried about the precarious material conditions that pervade contemporary urban culture (at least from the perspective of sustainability if food/water/power systems are interrupted). And I know I could develop the skills I need to live like that.
But obviously, something can be done to prevent a collapse. We could work together to ensure the stability of urban environments, and produce all of the energy and matetials we need here, locally. We could put everyone to work with this goal in mind. We could build a better world collectively.
But how? How do I find a group of people to work with? How do I convince the liberals who just shrug and say, man, isn't it just terrible that trump is in charge? How do I find anyone who's thinking about this shit, and realizes that actually yes, this can all fall apart. Things are not as stable as they seem. Climate change is literally the only issue that matters in any time frame beyond 10 years.
What is next? What is there to do?
Hot take, but I'm optimistic about climate change. Sure, the US wont stop it, but china will. China is rising and the US is in decline. A big crisis and american influence will shrink to a point where the chinese can strongarm other countries into enforcing measures. Sure, it could be seen as fucking imperialism, but still. No matter your stance on china, they plan long term. And they are in control of almost the entire market in regards to renewables. They sit on almost all rare earths and are leading in solar amongst many other things. Its only logical for them to force a change and profit massively.
Bad news is, the US must crumble. Eco accellerationism?
I'm not sure China will be able to stop or reverse climate change without new sources of energy. Think expansion of safer fission energy, or, somehow fusion. That might be the only way to effectively sequester enough carbon to even consider a reversal. But there's still the huge task of preventing the extinction of species and collapse of ecosystems, which might be happening just due to the expansion of human built environments. So it's not small task. Still, they're the only ones with the population and political mechanisms to do anything about it, if it's possible.
The hardest part is just saying, ah well you know, the Chinese will figure it out. I'll just sit here and drink and try not to think about it until I lose my job and my savings are wiped out by rampant inflation, and the grocery store prices keep climbing. It's fine. This is fine.
Evety bit of CO2 saved makes sucess more likely. That much is safe CO2 you could contribute by killing billionaires, causing stock crashes "destroying money", downing planes,... there are a lot of measures. Most importantly though is to get off of fucking coal. Tve rest is secondary.
China has given up on global climate action with the west, and taken the Akkadian strategy. They're retreating to their defensible core while preventing periphery revolt, bolstering their water and agricultural zones as best they can, and seeking to dominate trade and extraction along key routes in central Asia and Africa. Non train trade is likely not going to be possible, so they're heavily train gang.
Ultimate goal is to maintain economic capacity for an armoured strike on the trans-Siberian railroad and Lake Baikal as late as 2100, in case the climate fucks over the Three Gorges project.
They'd love action on climate change, but they aren't going to sit there and expect it to happen. They're going to preserve their power and their citizens and wait until the global political situation makes it possible.