to play devils advocate though if you’re born in a world with acidic rain then wont everyone just adapt having not known any different?
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Herein lies an unfortunate presumption. It’s the Christian model too - true life awaits in heaven. But entertain the idea for a moment that you will be back to live another life - and it’ll be your problem when you come back. We base a lot of assumptions on the idea that I am me and you are you. But strip away all the names and identities and we can agree on one thing, babies are born and lives will be lived, consciousness will be experienced. So much of our greed and horrid consumerism is based on this one iLife scenario. But if you’re coming back, forever, then we have all the time in the world to enjoy the planet and its fruits. Best we keep it tip top because it really will be your problem. It is now, isn’t it?
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Non stop acid music for everybody!
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free acid for everybody is something I can get behind
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Another thing to bear in mind is that these prophecies of doom have been reported on for decades, it is nothing new, this isn’t to say ignore it, but also don’t let it steal your hope and desire to improve our world.
I did really investigate which products i buy - i did sell one drum machine, and one synth in the last 15 years, because i didnt like the form factor of it. (Rack synth /rack drum ) , so my personal intention is to keep all my music machines as long as possible. I hope that i could repair them even if they break as i am an electronic engineer myself.
I personally have an android phone, with build in battery, which i really dont like, because they made it overly complicated to replace the battery inside, also with all the software upgrades, they eat up the build in memory so fast, it is starting to frustrate me enough that i want a phone with more memory because they fill it with apps i dont want.
In see that as planned obsolescence of the phone, and that is in my opinion the real issue of our time, its also now introduced into the car market, as you cant be sure how long your vehicle is allowed to run, because they do a new enviromental cycle around it.
We need also social change, so that commuting to work is reduced as much as possible, as this is a major factor in energy usage. We also have to invest into renewable energy as our first priority. Many regulations currently hinder this development, which is a sad fact. Our politicians protect coal power plants, and sold out solar industry, the same with wind energy which is currently on hold because of a distance regulation, no new wind tower could be build 1 km near human occupied land, that reduces the avilable areas to nearly non existant.
This needs to be corrected.
cars?!..population needs to go down. too many people.
[but yes cars too…fewer people fewer cars 
]
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I have a few suggestions
-Don’t let yourself be convinced that your individual habits are what needs changing in order to save the world. That doesn’t mean don’t change! Just understand your efforts around personal habits are more about living your values and building a culture of conservation. The cultural shift is a great thing, but it won’t stop fossil fuel subsidies or end logging of ancient forests. Those goals are political in nature are better addressed with organized political action. New lightbulbs and bike commuting won’t do it. (But they’re great!)
-Everything you love is under threat. (Unless you love death and the extinction of species) Pick something that motivates you and work to protect it. There is a huge variety of shitty things going in the world, so you’re truly spoiled for choice. You can fight for a living thing, for a natural place, or for ideas like democracy, or for human rights. These are all under threat.
-Use your talents in the fight. Artists have a role too. You can make evocative music or write moving poetry? Capture meaningful photos? Share these with organizations and individuals engaged in the fight. The revolution includes dancing.
-Start thinking about the work it will take to transform our society, stop dwelling on how bad it is and doomsday prepping. Focus on where we want to go, not on where we don’t.
My 2c!
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I’m far from perfect, but I’ve pretty much shifted into an anticonsumerist mindset. Not that it’ll actually make a meaningful difference. As for my views on the subject:
If you play around with the logistics population model you can see that a reduction in resource availability (i.e. carrying capacity) forces a population reduction. Or to put it in real terms, without enough food people will starve.
And what we’re now experiencing on a global scale is the beginning of this. High yield agriculture, land clearing and contamination have all mucked up the soil fertility, increased desertification and ultimately threaten food security.
Insect & aquatic populations are plummeting, crashing the entire food web. For the record, we don’t just need bees for pollination; we need insects for healthy soil and a bunch of other stuff. Even if the fish populations were to stabilise, it’s becoming less and less of a good idea to be eating them considering what’s getting into the waterways.
We simply don’t have enough water to go around. It’s not just for drinking, washing and growing food these days - our entire way of life (eg manufacturing) is dependent on it and we have a tendency to either contaminate what little we do have; or give it away to the resource sectors.
No doubt there’s probably a whole lot more that we’re up against. These are just some of the ones off the top of my head - and they’re scary enough as is.
You’ll notice I hadn’t said anything about climate change yet. But if you wanna throw that into the mix then you’ve got increased droughts and more severe storms/flooding/bushfires/etc - all of which affect food & water security. Plus an increased strain on economic resources when trying to adapt; and bigger problems with infectious diseases etc. But if you wanna go ahead and ignore C.C then that’s ok, because everything else I’ve said still stands.
So is there anything we can or will actually do about all this? Short answer is no.
Companies will continue to do everything they can to maximise profits. Majority of people are either trying to survive or want their quality of life to continue undisturbed. The wheels are likely to fall off the economy if governments were to try and force any real change; and in any case they’re too broke or afraid of losing power to even try. Science is too slow to come up with affordable & workable solutions. Developing countries are either too poor to do anything or too busy trying to play catchup. Even if a global shift in attitude were to happen, and I mean by everybody, it’ll be too late.
The world is dying and we killed it. Doesn’t mean we should stop trying though, although it might be best to think of it as palliative care on a global scale.
Ok, so that last bit was probably a wee bit hyperbolic. No doubt some people would survive and the population could stabilise, but we’re looking at one helluva fight for resources and it’s not gonna be pretty even for the survivors. Think war, famine, disease and death and hope that nobody chooses the nuclear option.
So what’s left? Hope or despair? I choose hope. But not in people being able to fix this - that simply won’t happen. Maybe I should call it faith instead. Because “faith is assurance of things hoped for”.
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I agree with many things you mention, but just want to add that changing personal habits and lifestyle to be more environmentally friendly has the potential to make a difference in the long run. If you are a good role model and convince people close to you or at work etc. on why it is important/necessary, those ideas will spread, albeit slowly. At least here in Germany, votes for the green party are at an all time high, numbers of vegetarians are growing etc., but it is a slow process.
It’s true that some of it might be due to fads or trends, but I think that every bit counts, or at the very least, doesn’t hurt. And of course there are companies trying to capitalize on the organic/fair trade food trend for example, but if that means that coffee farmers on the other side of the globe have a better life, then I wholeheartedly support that (it isn’t always the case that certifications make a difference, sadly).
It’s good that you mention, that artists can play a role too, so I thought I’d share a few things that managed to translate an environmental message in a nice way:
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - There is no Planet B
In your face thrash metal, the song really encapsulates the severity of our current situation. Hilarious video, too. The whole album is a very weird dystopian sci-fi story, but also very enjoyable.
Animal Collective - Tangerine Reef
Visual album on the decline of coral reefs, which is also a side-effect of climate change (the ocean acidifies due to its buffering capacity as it takes up CO2 from the atmosphere) that hasn’t been touched upon in this thread. The music sounds very watery, but it’s worth the hour for the visuals alone.
They also recorded the EP ‘Meeting of the Waters’ in the Amazonian Rainforest to bring attention to deforestation, which I can also recommend. There’s also a nice documentary on YouTube about it.
Please call me out if this is too much of a shameless self-promotion, but I recorded a bunch of environmentally themed songs earlier this year, if anyone wants to take a listen:
On a side note, we’re almost 100 posts into this thread an nobody suggested the OP to buy an OT yet. Is this elektronauts? 
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I’m optimistic. Everything will be better, after World War III and the worse viruses!
Buy 2! It’s Christmas! 
@palm @sezare56 @Microtribe – So, what role are you going to play, the motorized vasectomy unit? 
I really don’t get these people defending cars while pointing the finger at children…
I already had a vasectomy. It was great! lazer method, Thoroughly recommend.
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I said both. People are killing the planet. Fewer people, less resources get gobbled up. Get rid of cars for all I care. I walk or ride a bike. (Most of the time)
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People have been living on this planet for ages. It’s the actual occidental way of life that kills.
I find it hard to get back to living from the land like my grandfathers did (or my father still does). But I guess we have to stop feeding on this system, find another one and use left ressources to build it.
I’m all for bike! Can’t stand cars!
This is very inspiring.
I have to find my way towards this, and find people that fight the same battles.
Mmm, goal for 2020! Thanks @Analogic.
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True, but very problematic to get a real long-time lasting solution … just my thoughts …
- We agree that wasting resources is correlated to poor knowledge and education
- Populations with relatively good education tend to get less and less offspring and are decreasing by the day.
- Populations with relatively poor education tend to explode.
I know some people, who think it would be a good idea to have no children, because the world is overcrowded. All of them with academic education. Thinking this to the end would mean, less educated population … but would the others follow? I tend to say … no.
And last but not least … who will decide, who is allowed to get children and who not?
IMO only good education can be the way of a humanistic change to the better. If this would have success, the only disadvantage of this would be, more educated people would drive all those egomaniacs, dictators, and ideots out of office 
But would this be a loss?
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if carbon taxes will happen (that’s the point of all that environmental activity), it’s up to legislature to decide whether music industry must pay it or not (now).
all the rest of discussion is just a waste of time.
Well you can certainly criticize a system you had no choice in
Okay, but do they all have an equal voice? Especially when you know that the richest 1% owns 45% of the wealth of the planet?
I would say it is proven far more than beyond reasonable doubt by now.
Exactly, and we could achieve a much better overall stable state by acting now than by delaying action as shown in the Meadows report
What steals my hope is exactly this! It’s been known for decade, no action has been made and time is running out.
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I wholeheartedly disagree, discussing these issues is never a waste of time. Nor is it a good idea to fall into a black or white way of thinking that a carbon tax is the only solution.
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