Quinn Norton
The find out period is going to make me just die of continuous anger. Everyone wants to say it's someone else's fault and get into a big argument about agency and governance. It's our fault, it's entirely our fucking fault.
I owned cars and flew in planes, I ate meat and Amazon'd shit I didn't need. Don't tell me it's Exxon. If Exxon didn't have any customers, it wouldn't have any emissions, would it?
Quinn Norton
If you think history is going to reflect on us fondly, well, expect it to be about as fondly as southern slave owners. You are going to be a monster among monsters. "I wasn't one of the 1%" is going to be "I only enslaved one or two black people, not like a big plantation." kind of excuse.
Quinn Norton
"But we didn't have any easy options in the society we'd built"
Yeah that's going to wash with the generations of suffering we're dooming our own damn children to, because we are literally too selfish to give up any luxuries.
Stop lying about loving your children. It's not just words, if you love someone you act. This isn't a loving future. We despise our children. We laugh while we stack up pain death and disease for them.
Quinn Norton
@jered i hadn't. that was about right, i suppose.
Jered Floyd
@quinn You’ve read, I assume, Paolo Bacigalupi’s “A Full Life”? https://archive.is/0GKNi
Quinn Norton
@jered healthy for whom? what does healthy even mean?
(right this second, compared to the news out of spain, he's positively rosey)
Jered Floyd
@quinn he has a new short last month also: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/19/1105142/azalea-science-fiction-paolo-bacigalupi-climate-change/
He mostly writes climate dystopia SF. I can’t say that you or he are wrong, but withdrawal from practical existence is also not a healthy direction.
Quinn Norton
I wrote about the incredibly easy ways to limit your climate damage years ago https://medium.com/no-neutral-ground-ground-in-a-burning-world/these-easiest-climate-wins-in-the-world-f52913f50adb
No one cared. No one wants to hear it, even when it's incredibly easy. That's how monstrous we are.
Quinn Norton
@magicalthinking Cotton is often a real bad problem because of water use and habitat destruction. Cotton is what destroyed the Aral sea... which isn't to say don't use any but think about where it's coming from and buy second hand when you can, and repair what you have.
I also use heating pads instead of house heating, that's been really good. and looking at which power sources you can purchase from a utility, they often have green options.
🌈Delusional Thinking
As a new england yankee, I'm always amazed by the omission of conservation from the modern environmental movement. I use ball jars for nearly everything and only buy cotton and wool because those plastic clothes never decompose. Instead of turning up the thermostat just put on a sweater, use a mug, a rag... It's just common sense. Be a cheapskate and bring a lunch.
Buying a battery car makes you "green," but it's not good in the long run.
Quinn Norton
@magicalthinking politically i wish i could see and upwelling of support for trains and other public transit options. a train friendly america with intercity service, sleepers and good local transit that was lovingly maintained would be amazing.
Quinn Norton
@magicalthinking there's definitely different kinds of transit for different kinds of areas. Buses are great, though stimatized. Bike lanes that prioritize throughput, safety, and green spaces are great. rail and subway are for larger areas, but trams, trolly cars and dedicated public transport lanes are fantastic even for smaller towns. there's a whole lot of urbanism that scales down. remember that streecars were vital community fabric before the red car case.
🌈Delusional Thinking
Public transit is a joke.
Unless you are in NYC or some other densely packed area it doesn't work.
A town running buses around the place is fine but rail, subways - they just aren't worth it.
Quinn Norton
@magicalthinking (the red car case was part of the american auto makers' efforts to destroy public transit and force everyone into car dependancy. it wasn't just a big city thing.)
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