So what did you expect your politicians to do about this? If you knew this was coming, why didn’t you prepare yourself? Don’t get me wrong - it sucks that people are having to deal with that but I’m not sure that the blame should be pointed at our government. And trust me - this is going to be much more common in the next 10 years so you might want to make some long term preparations.
I was prepared in so much that I am able to work from home and we had enough food that we didn’t have to venture out. But I also had the luxury of not working late into the night on Tuesday so that I was able to read the news that evening and adjust accordingly.
More generally, even knowing that something is coming doesn’t mean that people are capable of preparing in an adequate way. If someone’s job requires them to be outside, for example, and the government hasn’t communicated the urgency of the moment to employers, that person is out of luck.
The government found it worthwhile to distributing a million free masks today (Thursday). With more aware and prepared leaders, that could have been done a day earlier, when those masks were needed most.
Personal responsibility is important, but the government’s most crucial function is to protect residents, especially those most vulnerable, and provide the sort of services and initiatives that can only be done efficiently through the power of the state.
Air quality is maybe harder to grasp, but think of it as record blizzard. An individual can know it’s coming, but it’s still the responsibility of government to take action to warn people and take the steps required to minimize the damage.
Agreed...to combat our increasingly bleak climate future requires global collective government action, massive corporate support, and individual changes and sacrifice.
We've seen that, even in the face of a pandemic that killed millions, we narrowly escaped utter global catastrophe because the virus was not as lethal as it might have been and existing technology was able to be tweaked to provide unequal access to vaccines.
There is no simple technological solution to global warming. Americans won't decrease their dependence on cars, employers won't accommodate broad WFH policies, fossil fuel companies will extract every last petrodollar (even though renewables are cheaper), developing countries aren't willing to sacrifice growth for environmental health, politicians on both sides in the US (albeit to different degrees) are captured by the massive donations of big oil and gas, SCOTUS is practically a PR arm of these companies, big banks invest heavily in fossil fuel giants, those mist passionate about climate change are historically least likely to vote.
We can't stop all the climate horrors to come, but we can take massive individual action in reducing dependence on cars, adjusting thermostats, installing solar, switching to heat pumps and induction stoves, stop eating meat, vote for candidates who make climate change a priority, etc. It's effective when tens of millions step up.
Likely little will happen until there are weeks or months of toxic air because people can normalize almost anything. But there are actions that can be taken...imperfect, but meaningful.
The whiney loudmouth minority bullies have been allowed to lord over the majority of US for far too long. The majority of US need to pull together and stand up to the bullies.
So what did you expect your politicians to do about this? If you knew this was coming, why didn’t you prepare yourself? Don’t get me wrong - it sucks that people are having to deal with that but I’m not sure that the blame should be pointed at our government. And trust me - this is going to be much more common in the next 10 years so you might want to make some long term preparations.
I was prepared in so much that I am able to work from home and we had enough food that we didn’t have to venture out. But I also had the luxury of not working late into the night on Tuesday so that I was able to read the news that evening and adjust accordingly.
More generally, even knowing that something is coming doesn’t mean that people are capable of preparing in an adequate way. If someone’s job requires them to be outside, for example, and the government hasn’t communicated the urgency of the moment to employers, that person is out of luck.
The government found it worthwhile to distributing a million free masks today (Thursday). With more aware and prepared leaders, that could have been done a day earlier, when those masks were needed most.
Personal responsibility is important, but the government’s most crucial function is to protect residents, especially those most vulnerable, and provide the sort of services and initiatives that can only be done efficiently through the power of the state.
Air quality is maybe harder to grasp, but think of it as record blizzard. An individual can know it’s coming, but it’s still the responsibility of government to take action to warn people and take the steps required to minimize the damage.
Agreed...to combat our increasingly bleak climate future requires global collective government action, massive corporate support, and individual changes and sacrifice.
We've seen that, even in the face of a pandemic that killed millions, we narrowly escaped utter global catastrophe because the virus was not as lethal as it might have been and existing technology was able to be tweaked to provide unequal access to vaccines.
There is no simple technological solution to global warming. Americans won't decrease their dependence on cars, employers won't accommodate broad WFH policies, fossil fuel companies will extract every last petrodollar (even though renewables are cheaper), developing countries aren't willing to sacrifice growth for environmental health, politicians on both sides in the US (albeit to different degrees) are captured by the massive donations of big oil and gas, SCOTUS is practically a PR arm of these companies, big banks invest heavily in fossil fuel giants, those mist passionate about climate change are historically least likely to vote.
We can't stop all the climate horrors to come, but we can take massive individual action in reducing dependence on cars, adjusting thermostats, installing solar, switching to heat pumps and induction stoves, stop eating meat, vote for candidates who make climate change a priority, etc. It's effective when tens of millions step up.
Likely little will happen until there are weeks or months of toxic air because people can normalize almost anything. But there are actions that can be taken...imperfect, but meaningful.
‘Likely little will happen until there are weeks or months of toxic air because people can normalize almost anything.’
...and by then it will be too late, sadly.
Not without universal political mandates anyway. But that is what is needed. We need to elect those who are willing to make those tough choices.
Though look at what happened with simple mask mandates...
The whiney loudmouth minority bullies have been allowed to lord over the majority of US for far too long. The majority of US need to pull together and stand up to the bullies.