Do you suffer from anxiety about climate change and its effects?

Suffer from is a strong way of phrasing it, but yeah it’s one of the things that makes me a little nervous about the future along with US politics 🙃

Have you ever made significant individual lifestyle choices because of climate change?

Yes. I drive a Prius when I have to, I work from home, I’m moving from a rented duplex back into an apartment complex for energy efficiency and walkability in no small part, and I try not to eat too much meat.

Have you ever thought of leaving where you live because of potential future climactic effects? Have you actually moved already because of them?

I mean I don’t love where I live currently, it’s too hot already and doesn’t have a lot of the cultural stuff that I like, plus the state politics are the kind that make me nervous. Planning to move in a few years when I am able to somewhere more amenable in all of those ways.

Do you think the world can limit global warming to 1.5C or 2C? Where do you think we’ll “level off” in terms of warming–especially if you don’t think we’ll meet either of those goals?

Can, absolutely. Will? Maybe. Technology is getting crazy and it’s only set to get crazier, and largely the cost battle has been won in favor of renewables already. Failing that, I think the hearts and minds of young people are already broadly on the right track, it’s just going to take longer for them to make a difference.

What do you think of proposed technologies like carbon capture? Do you think they’re useful, or a technocratic waste of time? Can they be viably used at large scale on any reasonable timeframe?

On one hand, I think we’re at the point where we’ve got to consider everything. If things turn out to be worse than we expect, and they look like they’ll be pretty bad, then we have got to have some tools like that to try and salvage things. On the other hand, carbon capture especially I think is used to justify more fossil fuel use now, with the thought that the carbon can just be captured later, which I don’t love.

Do you support something like climate reparations either now or in the future? Do you think such a thing is even viable?

I don’t know really. I think wealthy countries should absolutely help poorer countries leapfrog fossil fuels and get directly to clean energy, but I’m not sure that’s the same thing.

Thank you

I’ve had better weeks. One of my guinea pigs who has been sick for a while got sick enough that she had to be put down, with the added bonus that this became obvious about 15 minutes before I had to go meet my new landlord to pick up the keys to my new apartment. On the plus side, moving into the new apartment has been easy, I thought I would need to do a lot of back and forth to move stuff before the movers come to take the big things, but seems like that’s mostly done. Also, my other guinea pig is doing well despite the loss of her friend, so that is good also.

Good! Long weekend for me as an American, so I got to relax a bit before I’m moving the next two weekends. Plus I’m finally getting to see the various medical professionals I need to figure out some nagging aches and pains. Only drawback is now I need to find time to do all the different exercises they are giving me, which is easier said than done!