Ask Lemmy

Where did you get the idea that you’re not going to die of old age?

I've been keeping my mind busy, learning actionable skills and survival stuff. I am learning foraging, growing food, I've made a real decision to not reserve my happiness for retirement, as that day isn't guaranteed but today is. I convert the worry into little reminders about how today is the most important time to do the thing. I live immediacy and radical self reliance. I recycle, upcycle, reuse, buy second hand, adopt, occasionally dumpster dive, and reduce my negative impact on the planet. I donate to charities that help people in crisis, so more people can enjoy today while they have it. Also, instead of anxious, I get high.

I do my best to limit plastic use and eat less meat. But that's a mosquitoes fart compared to all the pollution that can easily prevented by the players that matter. Governments still choose fossil over nuclear, not enough subsidy on fossil alternatives that we could have had decades ago etc.

I bought significantly above sea level. Surely, I will have beachfront property within my lifetime, if all the claims are to be believed!

I joined a climate activism group in my local area, frankly it's the best possible way to deal with it. You can make a difference, the messaging we get is often intended to make us feel powerless to keep people from protesting, but it's actually one of the most empowering ways to deal with it. Being with a group of passionate people amplifies your ability to effect change, and given how broken many of our governments are, it's necessary. The biggest thing stopping us from forcing big changes is our lack of numbers, solidarity is strength.

It certainly beats sitting around feeling angry and stressed.

My only hope is that I'll be dead by the time the water wars begin.

I've resigned myself to the extinction of our species. We had a good run.

I'm a silly goose with young kids and I've been head-in-the-sand trying to deal with my own survival. Once I had an iota of stability, I started to let the outside world in again and often wish I hadn't.

I estimate I live in a place least likely to be dramatically affected by climate change, early on. It's not like I'm in Florida and can't afford to insure my home any longer because of hurricane risk. It's not like I'm likely to be one of the 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050.

So I try to take little steps to get prepared for something I never thought I'd need to be prepared for. We're growing more and more of our own food, we're expanding our water/food stores and storage. We plan to get a solar system soon (so we're the 1/10 that makes it through an extended grid outage), while global supply chains still function.

I've started a little (20TB) apocalypse library, full of illustrated guides, youtube videos, books, and resources.

My biggest stumbling block is starting community. I generally don't like people and as you've seen in this thread, most people don't take climate change seriously.

And, as someone else said... weed and time in nature.

Weed mostly

We have solar and a plug in hybrid car. I try to support small local businesses. We moved to a place with historically cooler weather above sea level. I vote in all the elections I can. I keep up with the town planning board and try to influence towards car independence. I stay hydrated, wear natural fibers, and try to buy used when I can.

We live on an ocean-going sailboat. We make our own water and electricity. We have ~25 years of membranes, filters, and most parts. While we have the means to move around to cooler climes, going further northward means more severe storms and shorter working life of everything. So there's that consideration.

Having the escape hatch of the boat does a lot to ease the anxiety.

Other coping mechanisms:

• fixing people's bicycles for free and evangelizing micro-mobility
• monitoring and mapping marine health in maritime communities (kelp, fish counts, bottom conditions); yes this is "just" monitoring, but one measurement is worth 1000 opinions and hopefully helps to move the needle on getting everyone to pull together on environmental protections
• community education on aeroponics and micro-hydroponics
• community support on emergency preparedness

I'm sure I'm skipping over some of my other copium prescriptions, but those are the most salient.