Continued climate change actions

[rebeccmeister]

Yesterday, ysabetwordsmith posted a whole bunch of news, thoughts, and ideas about climate change. One thing that stood out to me from her post was a short video about steps to take and work on, in the face of it all.

What stood out to me the most from the video was an interviewee's point that, for many people, their narrative of climate change is out of step with what the actual effects and experience of climate change are / will be like (briefly: not so much like trying to keep a vehicle from driving off a cliff, much more like a ship headed into a storm). I don't think I'd fully appreciated that point before, but it's a really important one because the narrative about climate change affects what a person will or won't do.

I don't know what will wind up happening to this particular reporting avenue, and videos aren't always my preferred format for learning about these topics, but I think I'll keep paying attention to this channel for however long it's able to keep going - it's PBS-based so I don't know how PBS's disbanding will affect it.

Comments

[twoeleven]

not so much like trying to keep a vehicle from driving off a cliff, much more like a ship headed into a storm

Huh! That's interesting because there was a bit of black humor I'd repeatedly heard/read during the heat waves in the summers before last: "This isn't the hottest summer in the last hundred years, but the coolest summer in the next hundred years!" (With some variations.)

So, it seems some people got it.


I'm not a big believer in video for most topics. They're they right tools for presenting visual information, like repairing or making things, but the wrong tools for just talking, which I'd rather read a transcript of.

[rebeccmeister]

I think sometimes even if aspects of the problem are framed accurately, the full/big picture may elude many of us. And in the video the person who talks about the analogy also points out other ways in which it's a useful analogy with respect to the appropriate actions to take. If you're in a car headed to a cliff, you have to yank the steering wheel HARD to avoid driving off the cliff, or otherwise, well, the final catastrophic fall will be quite the experience. If you're a ship that failed to shift course to avoid a storm, and now you're in the storm, you still need to do a bunch of things to keep the ship intact, if it seems preferable to stay on the ship to avoid drowning. (and maybe trying to build an escape rocket while on the ship isn't the best use of your resources?)

[twoeleven]

It's a good extended analogy. In both cases, though, I'd recommend slowing one's progress into the great unknown.

if it seems preferable to stay on the ship to avoid drowning. (and maybe trying to build an escape rocket while on the ship isn't the best use of your resources?)

Well, the space fans seem to think of it as a lifeboat, which is where both of the analogies break down. OT1H, abandoning a sinking ship is a good plan, but OTOH, there's no place to go in the super-duper rocket lifeboat. (If you haven't read A City on Mars, I'd strongly recommend it for understanding the problems, and doing so with humor.)

[rebeccmeister]

Hilariously, I just made a supplemental lecture video for my animal physiology students last night, on a topic that can be really hard to grasp just from reading words and looking at pictures.

[twoeleven]

Yay, tools for the job!

(The videos that alternately amuse and annoy me the most are ones about movies and movie-making, which seem to feature a lot of talking heads. Thanks, but I'd rather see what you're talking about.)

[mallorys_camera]

PBS is not banding per se, though the cutoff of federal funding will force cuts in its ability to produce original content.

And climate change is definitely a critically important subject.

[rebeccmeister]

Oh right, I got mixed up, it's the CPB that's disbanding. All the more reason to keep supporting all the forms of public broadcasting that are still trying to hang on!