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Ugh, having decided to come back to DW to do more long-form posting, I've ended up firing off my mouth on Tumblr. So I'm going to copy/paste my screeds over here before they become lost in the reblogs.
This one was written as a reply to someone whose mental health was suffering as a result of reading too much about climate change and global catastrophe, and who just didn't know what to do. I think it comes across as though I know what to do, but I don't. This is just my best guess:
I honestly think the human brain was not designed to handle the amount of bad news we throw at it day to day, and that when it becomes a mental health problem, we are beyond that point.
Making yourself ill will not help the world. The larger world won't notice, and your own world of people who actually know you will be hurt by it. So it would actually be a good and helpful thing to stop reading about climate change and concentrate on getting your mental health stabilized, in the short term.
In the long term - find out what YOU can do about climate change and do that thing.
For most people, there won't be an awful lot that you can do. But you can sign petitions. You can use green energy yourself and argue your friends/family into it. You can reduce your use of energy and plastic, and support food producers who are producing food in ways that improve the planet. You can spread awareness of the issues to the people you know. You can vote for politicians with good environmental credentials and support the work of larger organizations. You can start or join a community project to protect or improve a specific thing in your area...
If you're at the start of your life, you can can consider going into a field where you can help the environment. The world needs regenerative farmers and land managers and people working for Greenpeace and green politicians, and honest eco-friendly journalists and scientists researching renewable energy, and planners of green cities and builders of eco-friendly houses and designers and makers of regeneratively produced clothing, and inventors of plastic-substitutes, protectors of endangered lands and species, and makers of community gardens etc etc.
You can't do everything. Nobody can do everything. But you can probably do something.
So find your something you can do, and do that. And then try not to take responsibility for the things you don't have the power to change.
This one was written as a reply to someone whose mental health was suffering as a result of reading too much about climate change and global catastrophe, and who just didn't know what to do. I think it comes across as though I know what to do, but I don't. This is just my best guess:
I honestly think the human brain was not designed to handle the amount of bad news we throw at it day to day, and that when it becomes a mental health problem, we are beyond that point.
Making yourself ill will not help the world. The larger world won't notice, and your own world of people who actually know you will be hurt by it. So it would actually be a good and helpful thing to stop reading about climate change and concentrate on getting your mental health stabilized, in the short term.
In the long term - find out what YOU can do about climate change and do that thing.
For most people, there won't be an awful lot that you can do. But you can sign petitions. You can use green energy yourself and argue your friends/family into it. You can reduce your use of energy and plastic, and support food producers who are producing food in ways that improve the planet. You can spread awareness of the issues to the people you know. You can vote for politicians with good environmental credentials and support the work of larger organizations. You can start or join a community project to protect or improve a specific thing in your area...
If you're at the start of your life, you can can consider going into a field where you can help the environment. The world needs regenerative farmers and land managers and people working for Greenpeace and green politicians, and honest eco-friendly journalists and scientists researching renewable energy, and planners of green cities and builders of eco-friendly houses and designers and makers of regeneratively produced clothing, and inventors of plastic-substitutes, protectors of endangered lands and species, and makers of community gardens etc etc.
You can't do everything. Nobody can do everything. But you can probably do something.
So find your something you can do, and do that. And then try not to take responsibility for the things you don't have the power to change.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-20 12:33 pm (UTC)From:(Please tell me nobody took offense... then again it's tumblr. Yeah, don't answer that. Heh!)
no subject
Date: 2021-03-20 02:49 pm (UTC)From:But yes, I don't think it helps that the environmentalists are all WE'RE ALREADY DOOMED!!! while the politicians are still proceding like the environment is that unimportant thing that no one cares about. I'm sure we could do more if there was a bit more emphasis on hope and finding things that we could do to help.
I'm glad to know it was good advice. Thank you!