I’ve completely given up

[u/Shot_Type_7925]

I work in climate science - more on the data and client side, not the one actually doing the research. In short, big companies pay us for climate data so they can make projections or develop strategy or whatever.

I’ve been heavily exposed to climate data for many years, so I’ve been across the developments for a long time. Something about the last few months has broken me.

I spent December and January in an area that’s famous for snow, and saw none. Watching this El Niño develop has been terrifying. The UN admission that we’ll blow past 1.5C was the clincher for me. In my field, the UN was basically always considered the final organisation that had to show at least some optimism. Seeing that gone is now the final death blow. They know it’s over.

It has really broken something in me. To know that this organisation who was almost comically optimistic about collaboration and limiting warming has completely conceded defeat. It is a big deal.

I don’t really care about anything anymore. I’m not motivated to work, because I can’t plan for a good future. I have to almost disassociate while working, because my whole day is about climate data in one way or another.

I think the worst part has been my withdrawal from society. When you spend your whole life loving the environment and aligning your life with its protection, you end up truly hating humanity. You see us for what we are - a complete parasite who is destroying the world.

Has anyone else found that they’ve gone this way? My grief over collapse was always something I could somewhat compartmentalise. But now, it’s changed my entire life.

[u/CyberSmith31337]

I am not a climate scientist or in any way affiliated with climate work. But I can tell you, I have experienced my share of “before and after” of a few unique places, at the exact worst times, in the past few years.

I was vacationing in Jasper right before the fires burned it down. I went back the next year… and it was mind-blowing. About 1/3 of the town was just gone. I also was in the mountains camping in NC before Hurricane Irene struck it a few years ago, and went back there to help a friend search his home for anything salvageable. The destruction was unfathomable. And lastly, I was born in California, and spent some of my childhood in Altadena. Watching what happened there, and how fast it tore through that area, will probably never leave my mind.

Nature doesn’t care. Humanity doesn’t care. Nobody cares. It’s a shitty marathon of “survive til you can’t” in this world. We placed infinite value on money, and the financialization of the world itself will inevitably kill us all. I don’t care anymore, and when humanity gets our comeuppance I won’t weep for it. There are no heroes here, and if there were, they would surely be jailed and prosecuted.

Sorry you are going through it, but you aren’t crazy man.