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    Dealing with grief over climate change.

    The title is a little heavy. Sorry.

    But I really feel strong grief over how the planet has been treated by mankind and now we feel the effects through climate change. I don't have science education beyond Year 10, but I understand the need to be environmentally conscientious. It's not really a topic that's discussed much among my friends and workmates, so I felt really alone in my grief. One night, I searched in Google for 'grief over climate change' and found this: http://isthishowyoufeel.weebly.com/t...ists-feel.html This helped to validate my grief but also gave me some optimism.

    If I think about this too much, I get overwhelmed. I feel helpless because I'm really just a consumer. I can't engineer anything new to replace fuel sources or invent a biodegradable alternative to plastic. I can only work with the choices I have. The very naive part of me used to believe that if things got too bad, then other people would step up and create these alternatives for us and they would be cost-effective. Instead, I see a last-ditch effort to rip from the earth the already vastly depleted resources in one final push to get rich. I know I can't trust other people to do this stuff for me. I have to make it happen for myself. All I can do is keep my own conscious as clean as I can. My choices create the market for environmentally sustainable products. It feels a small impact, but it counts.

    I try to make better choices wherever I can. Some of the things I do are:
    - use cloth nappies instead of disposables
    - be diligent at recycling
    - keep one car
    - reduce waste by buying fresh food and cook instead of buying packaged food
    - use reusable bags instead of plastic bags when I go to the markets
    - keep a worm farm for my garden instead of buying fertilizers
    - make my own cleaning products when I have time

    Have you ever felt grief like me? What have you done to change the way you live?

    #2
    Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

    I remember first hearing about pollution, etc., around 1970, and all of that was an integral part of my decision not to have children.
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    Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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      #3
      Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

      Originally posted by Hawkfeathers View Post
      I remember first hearing about pollution, etc., around 1970, and all of that was an integral part of my decision not to have children.
      Now that's a lifestyle change! lol. That would have been a hard decision to make. I don't know if I could have done that.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

        I was about 12 years old. I never once regretted that decision! There were many other reasons for it, and it's not like I wanted to have them and changed my mind.

        Anyway - I try to buy organic, etc., and keep my footprint fairly small. I just read about something today - locally, there's sewage b eing dumped in a river where people used to swim/fish, etc. It seems like, if you're in a built-up area, you have industrial waste, and in rural areas, the towns dump sewage. It's like a big race to make the most mess. Very sad. All for the quick dollar.
        sigpic
        Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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          #5
          Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

          Originally posted by Hawkfeathers View Post
          It's like a big race to make the most mess. Very sad. All for the quick dollar.
          Yep, the dollar is the bottom line. I'm really glad someone thought of how to market 'going green' though. If 'going green' can be good for business, that is the only way it can have a chance. It's gotta be lucrative but competitive at the same time!

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            #6
            Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

            One of my cousins is running a sustainable community program where he lives - we need that everywhere!
            sigpic
            Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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              #7
              Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

              I would love to be involved in something like that!

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                I bought a chunk of land. It isn't huge - around 30 acres. But while I own it, it will lie fallow, a home for trees and whatever animals choose to live there.

                I suppose it isn't much. But I know I can't trust the gooberment to conserve the land. They'll sell out any trust you put in them for small sack of magic beans - if not this year when they want your vote, then next year when they want someone else's money.

                But I can trust me to treat my 30 the way I want it treated (one of the beauties of private ownership of property).

                If many people did the same, that would end up being a lot of land held in good hands.

                I am also live carefully. I don't reject much out of hand, but I do take only what I need, and some of what I want. I never take things just because others think I should. It tends to make me look like a kook to lot of people, but it seems like an honest way to live - at least to me.
                Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

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                  #9
                  Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                  Kids aren't all bad... My son last week (my rambunctious, not at all socially conscious, video-game addict, 6 year old) asked me if he thought there would be any polar bears when he grew up. I told him, maybe in a zoo. We've been watching polar bear documentaries on and off since, so he "knows what to tell his children, about how polar bears lived when polar bears didn't all live in jail". Meanwhile, Chickadee has been working on being a vegetarian for the past few months because she is concerned about fisheries.

                  We go out of our way to refuse disposable plastics and refuse or reuse single-use plastics--that means powdered laundry soap, bar soaps, glass containers in the kitchen, byo produce and grocery bags, say no to straws at restaurants (sometimes we aren't fast enough on this one), etc. The only disposable products we really consistently use (that is purchased for its purpose) is toilet paper--we ditched paper towels, napkins, and kleenex years ago. My kids don't get balloons. Since we live in an apartment, we take out the trash daily and use biodegradable trash bags (which admittedly have their issues) for big cleaning projects (when stuff isn't donatable), paper grocery bags for dry trash, and plastic grocery bags for wet trash--while we bring out own bags, we usually buy more than what fits in them (often because we use them for other stuff too...like storing the tennis gear, swimsuits, beach stuff, etc) and I never have all of them when I go shopping or to the market.

                  Without making this a *where to buy stuff* page...this is where we get plastic-free scrub brushes. Basically, as stuff has worn out or broken or been lost, we've replaced it with *not plastic*. Our dishes are all totally breakable fiestaware or stainless steel (for the kids, rather than plastic). Our glasses are all glass, and mostly jars with lost lids. Hubby uses a reusable coffee filter, and I use an infuser for most of my tea. Hubby and I both use an electric razor, rather than disposables, and we have LED lights now, rather than incandescent or CFLs.
                  Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                    #10
                    Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                    Pollution is a necessary result of the inability of man to reform and transform waste.
                    The transformation of waste
                    The transformation of waste
                    The transformation of waste
                    The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest pre-occupation of man. man being the chosen alloy,
                    He must be reconnected via shit, at all cost.
                    Inherent with(in) us is the dream of the task of the alchemist to create from the clay of man.
                    And to re-create from excretion of man pure and then soft and then solid gold.

                    patti smith, High On Rebellion

                    ::
                    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                      There's pollution and then there's wanton destruction.....and of course, if one family lives by a river and bathes/washes/etc., the amount of fresh water is so much larger than the amount of pollutants that it cleanses itself. Now add more and more people and you get the Ganges.
                      sigpic
                      Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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                        #12
                        Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                        I know what you mean. I often feel the same way and I regularly feel angry at how policy makers don't really address the issue, or just pay some lip service to it to keep critics at bay. I also get angry at people and especially at companies, but I also feel that it has to start with policy. Companies, and for the most part the public, will do whatever they can get away with, and our cultures tend to foster self-interest over long-term or communal thinking.

                        Personally, I feel that it really helps to not see myself as a consumer. I HATE that word so much and I refuse to use it in most cases (even when talking about other people). If you think about it, it's so ugly. It kind of reminds me of swallowing the world whole and spitting it out again. However, I also try to not behave like a consumer. I don't buy much stuff, and when I do, I buy used things or quality things that will last me quite a few years. When things break, I tend to fix them over buying new things (if possible...some things aren't fixable anymore). I ride a bike, even when it's raining. When possible, I take the train over flying or the bus. I make really conscious choices about what I eat, based on what's in season and where my food comes from. I make most of my own cleaning supplies and don't use a lot of cosmetics anymore.

                        There are probably a lot of things I'm not doing right, but I think the point is to make the effort and to make changes when the need arises. The more I learn, the more I'm able to make sustainable choices.


                        I want to see real moves to phase out non-commercial gas powered vehicles in our cities (I'm talking about Europe here, where driving is almost always unnecessary in a big city). In Berlin, our government pays a lot of lip service to cyclists, but there are still a lot of major, busy roads without cycle lanes that are lined with parking spaces, few places to securely lock a bike, and other resources for cyclists. It's better than most of North America, but compared to the Netherlands, it's pretty pathetic (pat yourselves on the back, Holland!) Berlin does a bit better with public transportation....it is expanding most networks, and overall it's one of the best systems in Europe (which is saying a lot), but some people still refuse to take it for some ridiculous reason. There have been suggestions to charge a flat rate to citizens for public transport use. It would be something like 20-30 Euros per month and non-negotiable...if you live here, you'd have to pay it, though there would likely be exceptions for kids, students (who already pay for a public transportation pass in their student fees), or people who are unemployed, low income, or retired. The idea is that if EVERYONE paid for public transportation, they could lower the cost the monthly tickets (which currently cost 80 Euros for two zones and 100 Euros for all three zones). But the kicker would be that if people have to pay for it, they might just take public transportation more often, which is sound, because that is definitely the case with the students (who don't have a choice to waive the BVG card included in their tuition). Personally, we had a similar thing in Victoria when I studied there, and even though I had a car, I took the bus to university because I had to pay for it anyway.

                        The idea is very, very popular. A lot of people like me even support it. I almost always cycle and rarely take public transportation, but the fee is low enough that I'd be happy to pay it, just to give everyone else the opportunity to take advantage of public transport. The big problem is that the system currently can't handle all 4.5 million of Berlin's citizens plus the millions of tourists who come here every year. They're working on adding more trains, trams, and buses and on adding bigger trains, but it's definitely a process.

                        Less awesome is Germany's policy on waste reduction. We have a really excellent recycling network here, but the problem is that people tend to totally rely on recycling and think that they've done their part. They haven't, though, because recycling still takes energy. I just wish they'd think twice before buying veggies wrapped in plastic or individually wrapped dishwasher tabs. People don't seem to want to educate themselves, so I wish Germany would take some initiative to limit packaging. Lobbyists probably win here, though...there are a lot of "Mittelstand" (google it) companies that make packaging here.

                        Also, for all Germany's lip service on solar and wind power, most of our power still comes from burning coal. I know that nuclear power wasn't popular with the Greens, but I wish that they'd banned coal before nuclear.

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                          #13
                          Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                          What I really think is we have some VERY stupid people in our Governments(plural because I include every country) who will talk them selves to death,never actually changing anything..Kinda like the human trafficking bill,playing some political game with a very important piece of law because it helps to get something else they want,even though people are suffering while the Goberments play their fiddle(Nero reference)
                          MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                          all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                          NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                          don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




                          sigpic

                          my new page here,let me know what you think.


                          nothing but the shadow of what was

                          witchvox
                          http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

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                            #14
                            Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                            Originally posted by anunitu View Post
                            What I really think is we have some VERY stupid people in our Governments(plural because I include every country) who will talk them selves to death,never actually changing anything..Kinda like the human trafficking bill,playing some political game with a very important piece of law because it helps to get something else they want,even though people are suffering while the Goberments play their fiddle(Nero reference)
                            Which is part of why I suggest that, if the gooberment does not do what you want, you must do it yourself.

                            People have this idea that, if we could only perfect a thing run by imperfect human being, the government will save them from their own foolishness.

                            Dream on, oh thou silly child!

                            If you want to be saved, save yourself, save those around you, but don't sit on your fanny waiting for someone to come to your rescue. Someone might, but it's not something you want to rely on.
                            Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Dealing with grief over climate change.

                              This becomes an issue when only a Goberment has the resources to require limits to company's polluting . Yes we each can do our part,but we do not come close to putting TONS of green house gasses every day...I also saw where they now confirm that fracking is causing earthquakes,and there is the matter of the HUGE mass of methane floating over the middle of the US.

                              http://www.mintpressnews.com/2500-sq...ern-us/200313/

                              And on the fracking.

                              https://ecowatch.com/2015/04/23/okla...d-by-fracking/

                              Might be time to get your affairs in order because it might get bumpy out there soon.
                              MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                              all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                              NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                              don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




                              sigpic

                              my new page here,let me know what you think.


                              nothing but the shadow of what was

                              witchvox
                              http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

                              Comment

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