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This is a thread mostly for Democrats or people who have some knowledge and respect for climate science/NASA.
Republicans/Conservatives - I already know how you deal with it, you bury your head in the sand and pretend it's all fake, that talking about climate science is some kind of bizarre conspiracy to try and take your money and give to the blacks, gays and PC college students.
To people who realize it's over (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719), how do you deal with the fact that the prospects for decent human existence on this planet are basically finished, and that it's only a matter of time before the coming field of brutal consequences leave us in a devastated state?
I tend to think of it like a flower. It is a rare gift to see it at it's peak. The Earth produced a species that blossomed and now is in full bloom, covering the planet with billions of people. We couldn't last forever and lasting is not what made us beautiful. The human race crawled from the oceans and the muck to become something that was both destructive and wonderful. We created language and experienced consciousness. We spread into the stars beyond our planet. We were something special that existed for a cosmic blink of an eye and then disappeared.
It is true that the Earth will be an extremely hostile place for the people who manage to survive, and for thousands of future generations, but it was a high honour to have born witness to whatever it is we were. I believe it is ontologically sound to state that, in all the universe, as far as we know, there is no better or rarer arrangement of atoms than the arrangement that leads to beings who can love and know they love, that can deal in abstracts and subtleties. I am sad that the human race will be reduced and probably wiped out or, at best, forced to eke out some kind of existence in a dystopian nightmare, but we can still look back with some level of wonder and pride at our history. I am especially sad to know that we had the potential to spread life to other planets but will now fail to even seriously attempt to do so; consciousness is a wonderful component of the universe and to see it stamped out when it did not have to be is tragic - and yet tragedies are not altogether awful. If you take what someone like Harold Bloom says seriously, they're the highest form of art.
Republicans/Conservatives - I already know how you deal with it, you bury your head in the sand and pretend it's all fake, that talking about climate science is some kind of bizarre conspiracy to try and take your money and give to the blacks, gays and PC college students.
To people who realize it's over (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719), how do you deal with the fact that the prospects for decent human existence on this planet are basically finished, and that it's only a matter of time before the coming field of brutal consequences leave us in a devastated state?
I tend to think of it like a flower. It is a rare gift to see it at it's peak. The Earth produced a species that blossomed and now is in full bloom, covering the planet with billions of people. We couldn't last forever and lasting is not what made us beautiful. The human race crawled from the oceans and the muck to become something that was both destructive and wonderful. We created language and experienced consciousness. We spread into the stars beyond our planet. We were something special that existed for a cosmic blink of an eye and then disappeared.
It is true that the Earth will be an extremely hostile place for the people who manage to survive, and for thousands of future generations, but it was a high honour to have born witness to whatever it is we were. I believe it is ontologically sound to state that, in all the universe, as far as we know, there is no better or rarer arrangement of atoms than the arrangement that leads to beings who can love and know they love, that can deal in abstracts and subtleties. I am sad that the human race will be reduced and probably wiped out or, at best, forced to eke out some kind of existence in a dystopian nightmare, but we can still look back with some level of wonder and pride at our history. I am especially sad to know that we had the potential to spread life to other planets but will now fail to even seriously attempt to do so; consciousness is a wonderful component of the universe and to see it stamped out when it did not have to be is tragic - and yet tragedies are not altogether awful. If you take what someone like Harold Bloom says seriously, they're the highest form of art.