A climate crisis of confidence
As LA burns and 2024 is confirmed as the hottest year on record, research shows how to overcome your inner climate doomer and continue the fight.
Scientists at the Copernicus Climate Change Service on Friday officially declared 2024 as the hottest year on record — beating out the previous title-holder in 2023, which in turn exceeded a record-breaking 2022. Nine of the hottest ten years have occurred in the last decade. This year has kicked off in ominous fashion, with deadly fires consuming a tinder-dry Los Angeles in the middle of winter.
Numbed by decades of grim news like this, paralysed in fear as the promised collapse arrives in earnest — it is no wonder so many believers in climate science have given up hope that the world will stop digging its own mass grave.
To set the table for what this climate crisis solutions newsletter will tuck into each month, I wanted to start off with a nagging question that needs to be addressed before any other: isn’t it already much too late for “solutions”?
Swathes of young people are feeling decidedly gloomy about the future — and climate scientists are similarly dejected;
Our increasingly unstable climate is helping fuel a surge in food costs, global conflict and displaced refugees;
All this turbulence has sparked a “doom loop” of people flocking into the arms of far-right leaders who are in turn dismantling climate policies;
Carbon emissions are deeply baked into how our whole civilisation operates, there are fearsomely complicated barriers in the way of replacing much of this system, and powerful vested interests are doing all they can to prevent reform.
Degrees of failure
In one sense, your inner climate doomer is right: it is too late to stop this crisis, as it is evidently in full swing. In another sense however, it is never too late. The planetary cataclysm we have unbottled will continue getting exponentially worse until emissions are cut to zero. Each degree of warming represents a new level of suffering for us and multitudes of generations to come, tens of thousands of years into the future.
If we regularly exceed 1.5C of warming (this is the limit the IPCC in 2023 issued a “final warning” about and that we breached for the first time in 2024) vulnerable populations including low-lying Pacific island countries will face an existential threat, and the rest of us will contend with significant disruption;
If we surpass 2C (an outcome that an ambitious transformation of our society could still prevent) just about every one of us is in some way part of a “vulnerable population” contending with extraordinary upheaval;
At 3C ( a level current policies could deliver), the world is anticipated to roil with regular conflict over dwindling fresh water supplies, endure severe famines, and cop regular heatwaves beyond “wet-bulb” temperatures at which humans can survive;
At 4C and beyond (which is where we will go if we all give up and do nothing) multiple experts have expressed fears that just 10% of the global population would survive.
Transform ‘eco anxiety’ into ‘eco anger’
Being realistic about the seriousness of the climate crisis is important, but relentless doomscrolling of the news regarding this unfolding disaster has been shown to instill paralysis rather than action.
Australian National University-led research indicates that the answer might lie in replacing “eco-anxiety” with “eco-anger”, which is linked to “better mental health outcomes, as well as greater engagement in pro-climate activism and personal behaviours”. Other research has shown the best remedy for climate anxiety is participating in collective efforts to address the crisis.
As a starting point, channel your eco-anger into collective action by:
Enlisting with climate groups (or donating to them) to help reshape our politics, economy and society;
Joining a political party or independent movement with strong climate policies and helping them campaign on the ground — or running as a candidate yourself;
Engaging with your local community to build climate resilience, or collaborating with coworkers to reduce the emissions impact of your workplace;
Participating in targeted protest against the 78 entities responsible for the majority of carbon emissions;
Working with friends and family to implement some or all of these fifty simple changes to your own diet, energy use, and consumer purchases.
Thanks for reading this first edition of Climactic. Each month this newsletter will dive into solutions to specific dimensions of the climate crisis that you’ll be able to help implement. If you have feedback or suggestions, do let me know.
Take care,
Max Opray