Left the old bar, found a new one
For those who saw my last post on Substack and are now reading this - welcome! The old bar was starting to have an unpleasant odour, one which the proprietors publicly said they would not address. On fact, they plan to encourage the growing stench.
In that post I invited anyone to unsubscribe, and one person did. Another left this comment: "clearly no else's serendipity is allowed in your my-way-or-the-highway zone, enjoy it while it lasts". I did not migrate that person's email. I don't respond well to threats, implied or explicit.
In the interim, I did also gain one additional subscriber after that post, and that address is now on this list - welcome, and thanks!
In regard to the comment above: I see no logical connection with the intent of that comment and my actions. I chose to leave one bar, walk down the street, and enter a different one. The new bar has a cover charge, rather than skimming any funds that I may hypothetically have received from my presence in the other one. In fact, I never had any intention of monetizing my presence there, nor do I here.
Now, on to good news!
I found this today, titled "I thought most of us were going to die from the climate crisis. I was wrong": https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/02/hannah-ritchie-not-the-end-of-the-world-extract-climate-crisis
A few excerpts:
"How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the past 100 years?
a) More than doubled
b) Remained more or less the same
c) Decreased to less than half
Just 10% got the right answer: c). The most popular answer, 48% of the vote, was a)."
"Yet my carbon footprint is less than half that of my grandparents’ when they were my age. When my grandparents were in their 20s, the average person in the UK emitted 11 tonnes of CO2 per year. We now emit less than five tonnes. The gap between me and my parents is equally wide. From the 1950s to the 90s, emissions in the UK changed very little. It’s only since then – in my lifetime – that emissions have plummeted."
"In just a decade between 2009 and 2019, solar photovoltaic and wind energy went from the most to the least expensive source. The price of electricity from solar has declined by 89%, and the price of onshore wind has declined by 70%. They are now cheaper than coal. Leaders no longer have to make the difficult choice between climate action and providing energy for their people. The low-carbon choice has suddenly become the economic one. It’s staggering how quickly this change has happened."
"...I look at realistic ways we can adapt the fields of energy, transport, food and construction to rein in climate change while improving human wellbeing at the same time. If we take several steps back, we can see something truly radical, gamechanging and life-giving: humanity is in a truly unique position to build a sustainable world."
The ongoing flood of daily bad news convinces most of us that Humanity is doomed in the short term. Look below the bad headlines at the progress we are actually making! Yes of course the next few years will be tough. But in the mid and long term, we are only in the early stage of a glorious future! I won't see much of it, but some of the people I spent time with yesterday will. Let's help them get there by discouraging the bad and helping the good. Like walking out of a smelly bar and finding a congenial one.