Pikkulog

A shorter gemlog for rambly things.

2021-04-25 (Sun)

I was speaking to a friend about the anxiety I felt about climate change, and by way of illustration I mentioned a study that suggested the area we live in would hit maximum daily temperatures of 40C in a couple of decades from now. They weren't moved, so I asked why, and their reasons were:

That's still two decades away or more

People already survive in parts of the world that have 40C temperatures

We're smart enough as a society that we'll probably figure out how to adapt as it comes

I wish I shared that confidence.

I think the two things that bother me the most are (a) the blasé attitude towards events, even bad ones, in the long term; and (b) the unsupported confidence that we'll figure it out. These probably aren't separate, either. Charitably, the fact that we've gotten this far doesn't mean we'll get any further; our civilisation has the ultimate survivorship bias, since if we're still around then by definition nothing has gotten us yet, and to extrapolate from that to the belief that we'll continue being around makes us much like the turkey on the day before Thanksgiving who infers that tomorrow will likely be just as it's always been before.

How do people cope with climate anxiety? I'm not sure that they do, and the more well-informed one is the more distraught they tend to be. I'd suggest therapy, but it's hard to see what therapy can do; after all, it's not like the problem isn't real, and at this point it seems therapy can only offer (at best) the ability to remain functional and become better-adjusted in deeply dysfunctional times.

I don't want everyone to go full doomer, but it's also remarkable to me how so many people seem to be aware of the crisis, and yet lack any sense of urgency about it. It's much as though you told them that a tsunami would hit in a week -- you showed them the data, pointed out the need to build seawalls, to restrict development on low-lying land, to prepare emergency supplies and shelters and evacuation plans, etc., etc. -- and they nodded once before returning to their daily business.

But then I suppose the way that the world has been handling COVID is sort of a preview. Lots of people aren't taking it seriously anymore, if they ever did, and even many of the ones who are still taking it seriously are dreaming of returning to the "old normal".

2021-04-17 (Sat)

It's remarkable how fast the days pass as of late. Part of it, I'm sure, is just that I'm getting older, and so each day that passes is an ever-smaller fraction of my life so far. But I also suspect part of it is just that with things being as they are, my life has become almost entirely a routine. I recall reading that our brains store repetitive memories compactly; maybe this is why, with the weeks repeating themselves with only minor variations, the time passes as fast as it does.

More than anything else I feel stuck in a rut here. It's a pleasant enough sort of rut, in some ways -- it could certainly be worse -- but I will be well glad when travel becomes an option again. I miss being somewhere new.

EOF