The climate is changing. What to do about it?

How to prepare for the upcoming ecological catastrophe.

Yes, this another one of those fear-mongering articles who state the simple truth: we’re doomed. Climate change will cause massive floods and droughts. We will have less habitable land and grow less food while we have to feed 10 billion people by the end of the century — living in a world wide city. Pollution will destroy nature as we know it and make most wild animals go extinct. The scientific data show that we are not slowing climate change, but instead accelerate head-on into a worst-case-scenario.

So, what can you do? Wishful thinking will only get you so far. There is already a huge market for products that “reduce your carbon footprint”. It is difficult to make the difference between snake oil and products that really help reducing carbon emissions.

Let’s face it: a lot of industry efforts can be labeled “greenwashing”. Products are flavored with a grain of good conscience, but of course they only sell if they are cheap enough for the billions of people who are not wealthy.

Let’s consider your options:

Stop caring

This is not recommended, but it is a valid strategy. Instead of going bonkers with fear of the future you can simply barrel on with your SUV, earn money in the car or oil industry and make your children and grandchildren deal with the fallout. But stop spreading misinformation that “nobody has ever proven climate change” to you. It’s real, most scientists agree on it, look it up. Stop spreading the word that everything that is happening is somehow ok, because it is “in god’s will”. You know, most things happen for a reason and I bet you still have to guess wildly what god’s will really is. Stop talking shit because you just want to sustain your unsustainable lifestyle. If you want to be a dick, well, you simply are.

Be a normal person

Separate your trash for better recycling. Consider using public transport (I know, US citizens, I know). Reduce plastic. Use less paper. Buy organic food and clothes. Simply think about it.

Change Politics

There are three sides to the equation: the government, the industry and the private sector. Every side tries to put responsibility on the other two. Everybody is playing the “blame game”. Everybody is wasting more time and effort on deflection instead of solving the problems itself.

The defensive stance of all sides leads to everybody conditioning his own actions to something the other side has to do. Nobody wants to take the risk of going forward too far. But everybody, including you, should go out on a limb to do something, because flattening the curve now is better than dealing with all the shit at once when it’s too late.

Become an environmental activist

You can join the “Fridays for Future” movement. You can join the Green parties. You can try to push environmental legislation in governing parties. you can change your company’s stance on sustainability. Stop waiting for some wonder tech that magically solves all the world’s problems. Most of the problems we have are rooted in global inequality and capitalism. But this will not change, there is no social utopia on the horizon. Keep it real and try to nudge your government into the right direction.

Stop wasting computer memory

Everything that consumes energy, especially the internet, is responsible for a lot of CO2-Emissions. At the moment the energy consumption of the web is rising. Broadband streaming, 3D applications and crypto currencies consume a huge chunk of the world’s energy production.

Because data can be duplicated easily, the amount of data is growing almost exponentially. At the same time the chips we use to process and store the data use less and less energy. This might lead to the impression that generating huge amounts of data isn’t a problem. But who needs all that AI-generated bullshit. Push for less and quality content.

Move to a safe place

Think about what is an unsafe place to live in, let say, 30 years from now. I would not recommend living on a small, flat island. Floodzones near the coast are particularly vulnerable, so you may want to move away from the Netherlands and northern Germany, New Orleans or Bangladesh. You should leave villages who rely on frost and ice to keep the mountainsides from sliding down. You may want to leave the thawing permafrost and areas who are open to freak weather like blizzards, hurricanes and tsunamis.

Don’t dig in, don’t hoard weapons, don’t prepare for a dystopian warzone. Yes, a gun may help you to survive a sticky situation “after civilization breaks down”, but a gunfight should be the very last thing to aim for. If you really want to prep up, try books about growing crops and cleansing water. Learn about growing your own food. Even if you barely have the room for some tomatoes on your balcony, it’s a usefull skill.

There will be no place that will not be affected by the changing climate in one or the other way. There will be economical crises, relentless migration and political unrest. Just be cool about it.