
Ask HN: How do we save the planet? - moberemk
So, lately I find that I can&#x27;t really sleep when I read news about how the planet will probably be unlivable within 100 years (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&#x2F;trump-administration-climate-will-warm-by-7-degrees-by-2100-2018-10) if not even sooner than that because of unknown factors. Frankly this post is more me trying to find some kind of hope that this is a solvable problem, one day... And I&#x27;m not finding it around much anymore. Even moonshot projects are worth entertaining, because right now I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s possible to argue that climate change isn&#x27;t the single biggest threat we face as a species.<p>So: we&#x27;ve all fucked it up. How do we make sure humanity survives the next hundred years?
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simplecomplex
The biggest obstacle to responding to climate change is The Republican Party.
No, I’m not being hyperbolic. They currently control climate policy for one of
the largest polluters on earth, the largest economy, and most of international
law.

Any help changing or defeating the Republican party’s dangerous anti-science
anti-facts agenda would get us closer to being able to collectively deal with
this issue.

~~~
ssijak
Then just put better Democrat candidates forward for the start.

~~~
cimmanom
That’s not enough when the way the country’s election districts are set gives
the Republican Party a heavy advantage at the polls (even without district
level gerrymandering - the state boundaries alone are enough to accomplish
that in the House; and do far worse in the senate).

And then there’s the issue of all the citizens who have been misled into
supporting Republican positions and are intensely ideological about them.

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bjourne
This summer it was over 30 degrees for a whole month and I could hardly think.
Like, it became physically impossible to write non-trivial code or work on
math problems. And it will only get worse in the coming years... I don't know
what to do about it. I've decided to become a vegetarian, but clearly that is
not enough and action must be taken on a global political level.

~~~
PerfectElement
At the individual level, decreasing or eliminating your consumption of animal
products seems like the most efficient way to help. You can also support or
work for companies that are changing things at a larger scale:
[https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-
stories/story/tacklin...](https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-
stories/story/tackling-worlds-most-urgent-problem-meat)

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titojankowski
cool! dont bother reading the negative crap, it's pervasive and people get
addicted to it. just keep your eyes tuned for solutions and more will appear.

check out [http://www.airminers.org/explore](http://www.airminers.org/explore)
for some solutions, mining carbon from the air

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GreeniFi
Hi Mobermek,

I run a business that invests in climate change related solutions,
particularly in the agricultural space. I deal with these issues on a day-to-
day basis and I’ve had to develop some psychological coping mechanisms -
because the reality is scary, the climate system is complex, and we don’t have
much time to avoid serious equilibrium shifts. I have children, and in many
ways I feel more concerned for them than I do myself. Anyway, these are my
coping mechanisms: 1\. Realise that your climate anxiety may be generalized
anxiety fixating on climate. Right now, for most of us, climate shocks are
less a threat than many other risks in our daily lives. 2\. Our civilization
will ultimately fail at some point, and so will humanity. In the greatest
expanse is time, the sun will die and life on earth will cease. Beginnings and
endings are in the natural order of things. It’s useful to me to see the
bigger picture. 3\. That said, whilst we are in the race of our lives, there
is huge focus on renewable energy technologies and also climate adaptation
measures. In the next 10 years we may turn the beast around, and we also might
turn up technologies that are revolutionary. Don’t discount this possibility.
4\. As an ultimate backstop, buy some fertile land and know that you and your
family can retreat there if need be.

I hope the above is useful. If you can see a counselor, then do.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
> Right now, for most of us, climate shocks are less a threat than many other
> risks in our daily lives

Right there, neatly summarised, lies the problem.

When it is a direct threat to our daily lives it's surely way past too late to
do anything about it. The time to start is long before it gets to that point.

We managed it with ozone.

~~~
GreeniFi
Yes. We are extremely bad at managing distant threats.

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marssaxman
First, invent a time machine. Next, go back to the '60s and make a fortune on
the stock market using your knowledge of the future. Finally, spend the '70s
using your billions lobbying for something like the Paris treaty. Get it in
place by the early '80s and you might be able to rest easy.

Short of that, there's little to recommend. We can't save the planet anymore,
not as we know it; we've already pumped enough CO2 into the atmosphere that
every ecosystem on earth will be permanently affected, no matter what we do
from here.

Humanity will survive somehow. We do not appear to have any significant
ability to deal with long-term, collective problems, but we're pretty good at
engineering our way out of short-term crises. The worse the immediate problems
become, the more attention they will get, and the more willing people will be
to divert resources to their solutions.

I try to avoid worrying about things I can't change, and the fate of humanity
is certainly one of them.

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shoo
> So, lately I find that I can't really sleep when I read news about how the
> planet will probably be unlivable within 100 years

> How do we make sure humanity survives the next hundred years?

There are things that are entirely in your control, partly out of your
control, and entirely out of your control. I think that guaranteeing the
survival of the human species is approximately entirely out of your control.
So there is not much point in worrying about it. Easier said than done.

Focus on the aspects of your life that you have a higher degree of control
over and where you can make a positive impact.

I doubt that global warming will cause the human species to become extinct in
the next few hundred years. But we might see collapse of a few civilisations.
It's happened quite often in the past to other human civilisations. Not the
end of the world.

There's a philosophical perspective on this that struck a chord with me when I
read it years ago - perhaps it may help you find peace:

[https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-
ho...](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-how-to-die-
in-the-anthropocene/)

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Habo777
We spend millions of dollars on the few thousand people who have cancer when
millions have no food we spend millions on them but we are killing our planet
what we need to do is see the bigger picture.

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jotjotzzz
Bill Gates recently recommended this book by Hans Rosling called "Factfulness:
Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You
Think" and it is a great book to read to be a realist.

The world is NOT getting worse, it is getting better. The news is only picking
up issues that sell, and fear and devastation sell, just like sex.

Solving global warming -- let's start with being mindful of our carbon
footprint. I'd love to see every car on the road to be driverless, electric
cars in the future. I think we are on our way.

In any case, don't read the news. Read books instead.

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Odenwaelder
Stop producing more humans.

