Anthropocene

- Chico Mendez, assassinated environmentalist and trade union leader

Happy Earth Day! We're doomed, please care.

Remember climate change? The thing that threatens to kill us all and end society as we know it? Or have you forgotten between all the bouts of endless corporation-sponsored doomscrolling and general apathy? I'm going crazy worrying about something that can and quite literally will kill billions of humans if we don't do anything to stop it, while no one else seems to care. When people do care, they don't realize the extent to which we are screwed and/or they think solving this will be as easy as simple lifestyle changes like recycling and not littering. First, let's explore how royally fucked we are when it comes to climate change.

Game over, GGs

Climate change continues to make our world hotter, raise the sea levels, destroy entire countries, make our weather more extreme, threaten food supplies, destroy habitats, risk the deaths of billions, and lead society to it's end, while we do little to stop it (Union of Concerned Scientists, Ripple et al., Pearce and Parncutt). We are heating the planet at the rate of dropping the nuclear bomb used on Hiroshima twelve times every single second (Mulhern, Pan et al.). We have plunged the globe into an era of global water bankruptcy (UN News). Critical ocean currents are collapsing, leading to catastrophic consequences (Carrington). Land and trees absorbed almost no carbon dioxide (CO₂) in 2025 (Greenfield, Ke et al.). New generations will face triple the amount of disasters (Thiery et al.). Rising heat kills one person per minute (Carrington).

Over 15,000 species are already affected by climate change (IUCN). There has been an average 73% decline of animal populations across the world from 1970 to 2020 (WWF, Ritchie). 40% of all plant species and one million species in total are at risk of extinction (Carrington, UN Sustainable Development). A third of all species face extinction at its worst (Urban). For many, it's already too late (Haddon, IFAW, Manzello et al.). Blue whales have stopped singing due to starvation (Nunn, Ryan et al.). The lands home to the countries of Kiribati, Maldives, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Nauru, Fiji, and the Marshall Islands - including all their landscape, nature, culture, history, language, resources, and human, animal, and plant inhabitants - are at risk of being completely wiped off the face of the Earth due to our inaction, to the point where some have started making digital copies of their nation to preserve themselves (Active Sustainability, Fainu). Inhabitants of costal areas like that of New Orleans are being urged to relocate (Milman, Törnqvist et al.).

With the way temperatures are heading, we can expect billions of human deaths. Every decade is hotter than the previous ones (Roper). We have a little over 3 years to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.8 degrees Fahrenheit) (Climate Clock). That's to limit it to 1.5, not to prevent it from reaching 1.5. Global temperatures are expected to rise between 2.3 to 2.5 degrees (4.14 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) within this century alone (UN Environment Programme). It could reach 2 degrees (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) as soon as 2030 (Worland, WMO, Hansen et al.). When this happens, we will be sacrificing roughly a billion human lives, which governments are already preparing for (Ripple et al., Pearce and Parncutt, Harvey). Pass 3 degrees (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and you're looking at the deaths of of over four billion people, a rise in sea level from 6 to 19 meters, and the inability for human civilization to function as normal (Laville, UN Climate Summit). We could reach 3 degrees (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) as soon as 2050 (Erdmann and Schmitt). None of that is to mention the impact on the plants and animals.

Things are getting worse at a pace that's that's faster than we are acting (Climate Action Tracker). We as a species continue to soar past climate deadlines, and we and all other species are feeling the effects (UN Environment Programme, Dunne).

Please note that "global warming" is an outdated term for climate change as a whole. Climate change includes so much more than just the planet warming (Harvey, Leiserowitz et al.).

Let me make this clear and emphasize what's at stake here: we are on track for multiple countries to disappear, over a million species to be extinct, and over a billion human deaths. If we continue at that pace, then we reach over four billion human deaths, a third of all species extinct, and societal collapse within the next 25 years. It's planetary suicide.

- Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Dr. Randall Mindy, in the climate change allegory film Don't Look Up (McKay)

But think of the stockholders!

- Unknown

I know what you might be thinking. It's not your fault because you do x, y, and z things! You reduce, reuse, and recycle like they taught you in grade school, so you don't need to worry about it. Well frankly, it collectively isn't enough. And I will concede that this is not directly your fault.

The truth is that you're being lied to about the causes of the crisis. We have everything we need to stop this (UOCS). We know exactly how to end the fossil fuel industry, usher in renewable energy, end our pumping of CO₂ into the atmosphere. We aren't waiting for some new miracle cure to our climate woes in a new scientific study. We have all that already. We're waiting on us to do something about the world we created.

It's been a while since you've heard or thought much on Greta Thunberg, hasn't it? Remember, the Swedish activist known for her young age and opposition towards climate change? Famous for her "How dare you!" sound bite at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit? Hopefully you hadn't forgotten about her or the impending doom this planet faces between all the circuses. She certainly hasn't. Something has changed with Thunberg, though, specifically with how the media covers her. It wasn't her goals or her career or her love live that changed the media, and therefore the public's, perception of her, but instead it was the very thing that brought her to the spotlight: her activism. She started to combat the same thing causing the climate crisis, the Gaza genocide, the military industrial complex, the rise of AI, and much of the other problems facing the world en masse today: the systems in place (Flakin).

Just 100 companies are responsible for 70% of emissions and just 32 are responsible for half (Riley, Carrington). Billionaires emit more carbon pollution in 90 minutes than the average person does in an entire lifetime (Thériault). The emissions of the richest (or should I say greediest) 1% are larger than that of the bottom 50% (UN Environment Programme). The world's wealthiest 10% of people are responsible for two thirds of all global warming (Schöngart et al.). Climate change disproportionately affects impoverished people (Rayner and Malone). GDPs continue to soar while we face the extinction of life itself (Clark).

- Greta Thunberg, political and climate activist, speaking at the World Economic Forum to the global elite attendees (The Independent)

Thunberg hasn't gone anywhere. Instead, she's shifted her focus to the oppression at the hands of the powerful in general. The exact CEOs and billion-dollar corporations causing the climate crisis. She used to be a favorite of the media, now shes barely brought up. If she is brought up, it's either talking about her in a negative light and/or mentioning one of her most recent endeavors supplying aid directly to the people of Palestine, and being promptly kidnapped by Israel in response (Flakin). I had a hard time finding quotes from her due to the amount of hatred towards her that seems to permeate through all news sources; I eventually just had to check out her book for myself at the library. Like her, it's time we shift to the real problems of society, too.

But hey, at least we were able to trade our planetary demise for cash! Sure, billion dollar corporations like Google and Microsoft lie about their impacts on the environment that already passed their previously-set goals... but they're making record profit, so does it really matter (Turek, St. John, Microsoft, MacroTrends, MacroTrends)? Just 100 oil and gas companies make more than $30 million an hour profiting off of the US-Iran War (Carrington). Despite the fact that we make enough food for 1.5 times the global population, 1 in 11 people go hungry while detrimentally polluting food companies make record profits (Holt-Giménez et al., FAO et al., Popli) People are winning money off of the death of our planet with prediction markets like Kalshi (Cerf et al., Lieberman). Sam Altman, founder and CEO of OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT), summarized it best when he said "y'know, I think AI will probably, like, most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world, but, in the meantime... uh... there will be great companies created with serious machine learning" (ControlAI).

Governments and political parties aren't putting in effort to try and stop this, either. They refuse to. 95% of all countries failed to submit UN climate pledges (Dunne). And why would they? Both US parties, Democrats and Republicans alike, are part of the problem. They're both paid by the same corporate lobbies that would fail if they couldn't exploit the planet for it's resources (Integrity Index, OpenSecrets). In 2024 alone, the oil and gas lobby spent over $150 million on US politicans on both sides of the aisle (OpenSecrets). They both lead the same military that is the single largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gasses (Thombs et al.). They both meet with oil execs directly in the White House (Waldman, Brown et al.). The solution for this problem does not lie in voting for the right flavor of US imperialism come four years from now, it comes from direct action, community support, and systematic change.

- Greta Thunberg, referring to capitalism, from her book "The Climate Book" (Thunberg)

The planet isn't dying because you didn't recycle, because you accidentally dropped a piece of trash outside, because you don't reuse every shred of plastic you throw away, or because you sometimes forget to turn the lights off when you leave for your 9 to 5. Big Oil invented the idea of your carbon footprint in 2004 (Solnit). Only 10% of emissions could be reduced through individual actions alone (Hernandez).

The systems in place have failed us. The companies and the top 1% aren't doing all this evil in spite of the world, they're being rewarded by the world in doing them. They are incentivized to destroy, kill, and profit while being discouraged from doing anything good, unless it can get them some good press or an award. This is a struggle as old as time; weaker people being disenfranchised by more powerful people while being told to hate whatever marginalized group it is that era. The only difference is now we have all the scientific innovation we could ask for, yet when it tells us very clearly what's going to happen and what's at stake, we ignore it. The people at the top only get richer and richer while the people at the bottom and young people face the end of it all. We continue to use the things they sell to us without caring about what other uses the tech and money is going to. If we want to stand a chance at saving our one and only planet, it will take all of us to realize that us the rich and powerful people and systems - along with the politicians from all sides they pay off - are the common enemy to our salvation. There isn't one bad party, one bad politician, one bad CEO, or one bad company, but there is one system.

In a blog post about why we shouldn't worry about the climate, friend of Epstein Bill Gates said "what's good for prosperity is bad for the environment" (Glazer, Gates). I can't help but agree with him. Prosperity, in the sense of profit, seems to be mutually exclusive with the our planet's health, and we've made our choice. Despite the current and impending doom, companies, countries, and individuals are incentivized to continue to pollute, loot, and destroy by making record profits.

There's a reason we learn about doing stuff like recycling to save the planet from a young age. Before we are even conscious enough to fully understand what apocalypse means, we are told the apocalypse is coming because you didn't do enough. Not because of the extremely lucrative fossil fuel industry, not because of rich, white, male nepo babies who could solve world hunger with their wealth if they wanted to, but because you opted to use a plastic water bottle instead of refilling a reusable one. If we were taught the real causes, they wouldn't stand a chance. To put all this plainly, I'm suggesting for you to become class conscious.

- Sara Eisen, cohost of CNBC's Squawk on the Street, asking if the death of an entire civilization at the hands of the US is good or bad for investors (Orrico)

What is to be done?

We failed ourselves and all the other living things who depend on us. We will continue to fail for as long as we don't do something about the rather greedy elephants in the room.

As the species that caused the problem, we owe it to all the other living things on this planet to make it a place they can live in. As the citizens that allow the Epstein class to methodically burn our planet, we owe it to our future generations to take back control. As colonizers that took the land, we owe it to native plant, animal, and human populations to bring it back to what it once was. As residents of the one and only Earth and direct beneficiaries and losers of climate change, we are all at fault for the continued threat to all life due to our passivity.

For one last time, please recall the severity of the situation at hand and what's at stake (that being everything, or at least everything for those who don't fuck off to Mars with Elon). Billions of deaths? Societal collapse? Yes? Good. Please, please don't forget. If not for our planet's sake, then for mine - I'm tired of feeling crazy and alone by being burdened with this knowledge.

If you're anything like me or the other 84% of young people who think we have failed to take care of the planet, you aren't optimistic about the outlook based on the way things are trending (Hickman et al.). I don't want to leave on a bad note, so here are tangible things to do and think about. While it's too late to undo much of the death and destruction we've doomed plants, animals, and us to, we still have some time to correct course.

I am not trying to suggest that because this issue is largely caused by the groups and systems in place that it is hopeless. This is not reason for you to say "welp, we tried" and give up on saving the world. Other than revolution, advocacy and individual action are still great moves to take.

Consider the political side of things. It's crucial to stopping the incoming apocalypse. Realize that both sides of the political spectrum in the US, Democrats and Republicans alike, aren't doing their part to save the world. As environmentalist and anarchist Edward Abbey put it, "growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." Our salvation is not with politicians and parties that prioritize economic growth over our continued survival. We need systemic change, away from systems that benefit the oligarchs killing us all. Something that benefits us all. Check out the links below for more information. As an aside, I think this essay makes me a terrorist according to Trump (Milman).

Be annoying. Don't shut up about how we are all, quite literally, going to die. Make your friends, your family, and strangers hate you with how much you talk about it. The more we talk about it, the greater an issue it becomes among us. The more it enters the cultural zeitgeist, the more likely that something will change. Make people uncomfortable. We should be uncomfortable. We deserve it. Use that energy and direct it to something meaningful.

Eat less meat and dairy, or none at all. Go vegetarian, if not vegan. Go "vegan, except burgers," as they say, if there's one or multiple foods or products you think you can't live without. Anything is better than nothing; just because you aren't perfect doesn't mean it didn't matter. Not mentioning any ethical concerns that come with consuming another living, feeling being or their secretions, the biggest way to reduce your individual climate impact is by avoiding meat and dairy (Carrington).
See also: Go Vegan

On what to do with your money, don't support companies that are fine with us ending it all. Switch your bank to one that doesn't fund the fossil fuel industry. Buy used and second hand or fix old things before buying new. Stop using big tech platforms, which is something I've made a guide on.

Help to tend to plants, if not a whole garden. Bonus points if it's a community garden kind of thing where you're both creating ethical, sustainable food while helping to prevent and stop food insecurity in your local area. Don't maintain a water-guzzling, ugly grass lawn.

Stay informed and involved with direct action movements, organizations, people, and, sadly, the news. See bellow for lots of links.

Generally be kind to the climate in the ways they teach you in school. I know I just trashed (get it) on things like this when compared to the big things destroying the planet on the large scale, but it's still important and it isn't nothing. Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Go zero waste. Carpool and take public or non-motorized forms of transit. Unplug and/or turn off your devices, machines, water, and lights when possible. Avoid buying plastic when possible, like by using bars of soap over plastic bottles. Go paperless, like by refusing paper receipts. Do the things, but don't beat yourself up about them.

Further Information and Links

Here are further things to read, watch, see, view, join, follow, etc. My favorites/the ones that I especially recommend you to check out are in bold. If you ask me, I'd recommend following all these people and orgs on every platform they're on so you can see their content and amplify their messages. Maybe that can hijack your doomscrolling into something that actually matters. The organizations, people, and creators all blend together, so they are in one big list. I tried to link to their websites, link trees, or Substacks before their accounts on billion-dollar social media platforms so you can find and follow them on all platforms.

- Thích Nhất Hạnh, Thiền Buddhist monk and activist (Hạnh)