indignantdenial
363
This! about your "This!"
Feb 20, 2024,04:28 AM
Agreed. When people brand themselves as sceptical, it's often not in good faith, more in line with either avoiding dealing with complex and undesirable outcomes or a sort of dogmatism that masquerades as critical inquiry. This is all too often the product of uncritical examination that thinks critical inquiry is when you oppose a burgeoning and increasingly robust field of study for the sake of opposing it. Climate science is very reliable and accurate these days; almost all the attacks on it constitute some sort of anti-intellectualism.
I believe this despite loving cars and the least efficient ones at that, for I know that the well-being of us on the planet depends on our ability to cut down on carbon and hyper-production. Ultimately, it seems to me to become a question of value to the agent: do you value survival which comes with less luxury and comfort, or do you value maximizing the status quo: convenience and profit at the expense of a great many people and places? That's a tough question because it calls upon the agent to make concessions they don't want to, but it's a necessary one...and there's a right answer.
Nice to hear that that project brought things to the forefront for you; I was not so much a sceptic as I was afraid and thus ran from the problem. However, I got educated and did some academic work in the area (a while ago mind you) and that definitely pushed me to be sympathetic to advocacy and the need for change, like you describe. It's a matter of how severe (for us + other animals), not whether it will happen, as you rightly point out.