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How do you deal with depression about climate change?

I started getting sad about climate change two years ago after seeing Planet Earth and many documentaries. I completely changed my lifestyle to reduce my part and put significant effort into it.

But seeing rich celebrities who use as much as a common man’s lifetime resources in a week or two, and others who barely put in any effort to combat it, and corporations fucking the entire planet for quarterly profits, barely any efforts towards fighting it even though we had known about its consequences 30-40 years ago, I get this feeling that my efforts are even worth it.

Slowly, I told myself that evolution failed itself by giving a bit more individual selfishness over community/species survival. Just like human beings, Earth’s time has started to end. Its death is inevitable. Everything should come to an end. Only if evolution had given a bit more thought to species survival, we would be in a much better place.

How do you all deal with this?

Drunemeton ,
@Drunemeton@lemmy.world avatar

“The Skin of Our Teeth” YouTube is a stage play by Thornton Wilder. It highlights humanity’s long and storied history of careening from one disaster to the next. Each time, surviving by…the titular title!

We’ll wait until the last minute, then we’ll literally redefine Heaven and Earth, as we move them, to save ourselves.

We always have, we always will.

So you can wait for that to happen, or you can start right now by getting involved in politics. Be the voice you want to hear, encourage people to vote for candidates that will support legislation to do something about it.

That’s literally the very old saying, “You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.”

friendly_ghost ,

I am grieving hard, and grief includes a lot of different feelings and experiences. Yes, there is depression, but there is also anger and reflection and the chance to find joy amidst the horror. My priorities have changed. I used to want to leave a legacy for the next generation; now I want to live in defiance of the evils that have ravaged our beautiful planet. Fuck billionaires, politicians, and cowardly centrist news outlets. Fuck them in perpetuity, until they rot away in their apocalypse bunkers. I will burn bright and hot to the end–that will be my legacy.

wuphysics87 ,

The earth will be fine. It’s us that are fucked

VeganicTankie ,

Capitalism is the cause of climate change. Corporations are interested only in max profits. This won’t change under capitalist countries, ever. Study socialism and join a local org or party that you ideologically support.

China is controlled by the communist party and its policies aren’t driven by short-term profits. There are corporations but they can’t go against the interests of the Chinese society, unlike the USA. Look at how China generates more clean energy than the UK total electricity output.

Don’t forget to go vegan

ganymede , (edited )

Notice how public discourse goes round & round in a lively show, but never seems to get anywhere?

This is strawman public discourse, and its largely by design.

Stop thinking, worrying and especially talking about climate change.

Instead talk about pollution & poison

Everyone can see it. It can’t be denied or handwaved or debated away.

STOP POISONING OUR AIR, WATER AND SOIL.

WE NEED THEM TO BREATH, LIVE AND GROW OUR FOOD. (duh)

sunbeam60 ,

But that’s not how carbon dioxide works. It isn’t individual poison - our bodies don’t give a shit whether it’s 350 ppm or 450 ppm. The planet does though.

ganymede , (edited )

It is tho.

  1. ~90% of CO2 pollution comes from sources which are directly poisoning us.
  2. CO2 in these emissions is a pollutant.

[naei.beis.gov.uk/overview/pollutants?pollutant_id…].

CanadaPlus ,

Well, I don’t really think our own species is likely to be ended by this one, but when it comes to death and loss, I think you’ve hit on the right perspective. Everything ends; things are finite in space and finite in time. If you like causality that’s actually a feature, not a bug, because everything happens all the time if there’s an infinite amount of it.

NauticalNoodle ,

I act local, think global. I also accept that it’s largely beyond my control, so there is no point in being that upset about it. It’s not like I will be having kids to worry about in the future, either.

grue , (edited )

Have you considered eco-terrorism? \s

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5f09b776-c665-4cef-8c5c-c0c203f31972.png

crazyminner ,

People saying do nothing, I’m saying do something!

Get out start a community. If one already exists join it. Find ways to improve your community.

Go vegan.

There are so many things you can do. Don’t accept doing nothing, be a stubborn fuck and do something to alleviate the sadness.

ramenu ,

“There are so many things you can do. Don’t accept doing nothing, be a stubborn fuck and do something to alleviate the sadness.”

Good words to live by. :)

destroyamerica ,
@destroyamerica@lemmygrad.ml avatar

try and pay attention to China honestly. the seriousness they treat climate change with is the only thing that gives me hope that we’ll beat it. some examples from very recently:

China’s embrace of rail and EVs stalls holiday petrol demand

China adds new clean power equivalent to UK’s entire electricity output

Shanghai to fully switch to new energy buses, taxis by 2027

China is on track to reach its clean energy targets this month… six years ahead of schedule

China Makes $31 Billion Nuclear Push With Record Approvals

Brief summary of the last three months of Chinese decarbonization policy by David Fishman on Twitter (xcancel link)

LiamMayfair , (edited )

Someone once said to me once “Relax! Nothing is under control.”

Worry about what you can control —which is very little, especially when facing a world crisis like climate change— and accept what you can’t.

The people who should be fixing this mess are not you or I. It’s the big corporations and the Governments that should regulate them through robust, uncompromising climate policies. Vote for Governments with honest, solid climate agendas.

Other than that, contributions from individuals like you and I are but a drop in the boiling ocean of global warming. By all means, keep doing what you’re doing. It certainly doesn’t hurt to lead a more sustainable lifestyle but don’t feel bad if you don’t do everything you’re supposed to do. Don’t let the real culprits here gaslight you into thinking otherwise.

Again, if you’re worried more about your mental health than the problem itself at this stage, it’s ok to feel that way. Many of us do. But the best advice I can give you is to just accept there’s nothing you can really do about the situation. Whatever happens, happens. Easier said than done, I know, but once you “learn” to accept this fact, your anxiety will drop right down.

kambusha ,

Yep. Fix what you can control, and accept what you cannot. You cannot control what others do, you can only try to persuade. What you can control is your reaction to it.

OP, you may want to try reading some books on stoicism.

Jackthelad ,

Everything this guy said.

I’ve struggled with anxiety my whole life. But my anxiety is about things that I can control. I don’t worry about climate change, or wars or pandemics or whatever, because it’s pointless worrying about things that you can do literally nothing about.

sunbeam60 ,

You can vote and march. Those are the only small actions that will make a huge impact.

sunbeam60 ,

“Evolution had given a bit more thought to species survival”.

… that’s not how evolution works, unfortunately. It requires us to do the thinking.

xmunk ,

Cynicism, trying to do what I can personally, voting and participating in politics, and just fucking hoping we’re over estimating the effects or that we’ll manage to come up with the political will to mitigate the worse effects.

Also, praying to Cthulhu that boomers hurry the fuck up and kick the bucket… at least the ones that aren’t cool.

Looking at Trump’s climate priorities (basically, burn as much coal as possible) and the people who support them fills me with disgust… it is as greedy and uncaring as our shitty late stage capitalism and I can’t comprehend existing with so little empathy or foresight. The deniers are essentially incomprehensible to me so I avoid them whenever possible and just hope they’ll die off faster than sane people.

some_guy ,

Take a break from the internet for a bit. I got offline as much as possible for two weeks a few months ago and it did wonders for my mental health.

Vibi ,

Unfortunately this is some of the best advice. I think different people are more susceptible to existential anxiety - or moreso anxiety over things that will never be able to change or control. Some people can channel that emotion into advocacy, volunteer work, etc while others mentally drown in thought loops. As rude as it sounds, sometimes it really is a ‘touch grass’ type of thing. You HAVE to watch out for your own mental health and oftentimes that means disconnecting from triggers and focusing on your own life and interests. Play a game, watch something, read a book, go to the zoo, meet up with friends - live in the moment and outside your head. I also recommend using the internet purposefully and not just to kill time - use social media for discovery and research of specific topics and not for just general consumption.

The_Picard_Maneuver ,
@The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world avatar

This is the way.

Social media will jump from one super important and stressful thing that we all need to lose sleep over to the next with or without us. Yes, these things might be important, but a lot of online activism seems to be about who can scare more people into supporting X, Y, or Z with zero regard for the reader’s mental health, the rhetoric used, or even being 100% factual.

It doesn’t hurt to disengage every so often.

stoy ,

I don’t think about it.

Really, that is it, I don’t deny climate change, it obviously is real.

But I am just an IT guy, I live alone, I commute with public transport, I have a small apartment, my car is a PHEV, bought used, consuming 4,5L/100km petrol on average.

I keep my computer turned off when I am out, I won’t pretend that I am super eco friendly, I do fly from time to time, this year I’ve been to Spain twice. I also enjoy driving my car, but I am cutting back on it.

When celebs and VIPs are bombing around the planet in business jets, companies and governments are actively working against electrified rail or rail in general, and pushing for more car infrastructure, then I can see that me feeling guilty about driving my car for fun or just to get to cool photo spots won’t make a difference.

Add to that the huge waste of energy that us crypto, and I have realized that yes we are fucked, but I have time to see cool stuff before everything goes to hell, so I try to use it.

I am planning on taking a trip down to germany next year and see some cool museums, and won’t feel bad about it.

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