I study climate change and sustainability. These are not things that have an on/off switch. There are levels of severity. Current decarbonization efforts project the temperature increase to plateau around 3.8 degrees, which is still catastrophic, but it's significantly better than the 4.2 degree model that is business-as-usual. Every inch of sea level rise equates to 100,000's of new climate refugees all across the globe. I need to do my part in decarbonizing our energy, be that through research as well as activism. Minimizing the fucked-up-ness of the future has real consequences for our species and our planet.
I recently graduated in geophysics with an emphasis on climate science, so trust me, I'm painfully aware of the fucked state of the climate. A recent paper constrained the margins of climate change predictions, making an increase of 3 degrees to be the most probable future. That's still terrible, but in my personal low cynical expectations, the thought that a 4 degree future is unlikely makes me feel a bit better.
Personally, I see straight-up optimism over how much I've converted lib friends and family. Furthermore, the hold outs are deeply convinced that if Trump is voted out, then everything gets better. I suspect that Biden getting elected and things continuing to get worse will be the final straw for most of the hold outs.
I don't know where you're living, but I see solidarity having a greater impact than division and xenophobia.
I study climate change and sustainability. These are not things that have an on/off switch. There are levels of severity. Current decarbonization efforts project the temperature increase to plateau around 3.8 degrees, which is still catastrophic, but it's significantly better than the 4.2 degree model that is business-as-usual. Every inch of sea level rise equates to 100,000's of new climate refugees all across the globe. I need to do my part in decarbonizing our energy, be that through research as well as activism. Minimizing the fucked-up-ness of the future has real consequences for our species and our planet.