Especially since I just read this:
https://www.noemamag.com/its-time-to-give-up-hope-for-a-better-climate-get-heroic/
It is a frustrating and important question how to message so the public gets the stake for their children’s lives if not their own. But also that it is not empty alarmism etc.
I think if we explained to the general public that the planet is finite and that population explosion/consumer culture will end up in the depletion of more and more non-renewable resources we would have a better shot than trying to sell “shop till you drop and still save the planet!” It might make more sense explained in terms of fewer real and sustainable jobs ultimately, worsening public health and spiralling crises..
Our lifestyles are not sustainable. Real green jobs imagined with actual creativity so real sustainability is worked in would make so much more sense than anything we are doing. Nature itself is rich in information. But we have this one model of economic growth relentlessly shoved down our throats by people like Musk, Andreessen etc. It is idiotic.
When I look at the amount of garbage we generate I wonder why it never occurred to anyone thus far to make a serious push to make recycling metals and plastics a profitable and useful pursuit:
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/11/demand-critical-metals-e-waste-recycling-clean-energy-climate-vince-beiser-book-power-metal/
Only 22 percent of that e-waste is collected and recycled, the UN estimates. The rest is dumped, burned, or forgotten—particularly in rich countries, where most people have no convenient way to get rid of their old Samsung Galaxy phones, Xbox controllers, and myriad other gadgets. Indeed, every year, humanity is wasting more than $60 billion worth of so-called critical metals—the ones we need not only for electronics, but also for the hardware of renewable energy, from electric vehicle (EV) batteries to wind turbines.
Lab made meat is another one-would reduce so much animal suffering and be better for the planet.
Thoughtful advocacy the world over regarding the importance of smaller family sizes across the board is another one. But the UN, highlighting their general cluelessness recently said population explosion should not be discussed. We see its effects everywhere (including the rise in extremism that is inevitable when an increasingly large number of people compete for what in any real sense are dwindling resources and opportunities for most of us who are middle class or below) and not discussing it ensures that it will only be discussed by hate groups. Common sense is not something our species actually likes.
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