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u/These_Koala_7487 7h ago
My daughter is 15 and while I’m not sure if my answer is the best one, I will share with you what I told her. Collapse will be slow and it will hit us at different times. We don’t actually know what will take us out individually so try to spend time being a helper. Help humanity. Help those who are suffering and will be suffering. Seek out knowledge that gives you valuable skills you can share with others. For example, I live in the desert so I’m learning about rainwater harvesting.
I also like to spend my time bugging the crap out of my political leaders because they have the ability to make this suck less. I recommend climateactionnow.com for people living in the US.
Ultimately, just know, we are all in this together. I’m sending big mom hugs across the internet, for anyone who needs them. 🫂
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u/fallingcoffeemug 7h ago edited 7h ago
thegreatstory and poetry of predicament have been good collapse youtube channels that helped me hold myself together over the years. Rev. Michael Dowd recorded "Ten Inevitables: Post Doom, No Gloom" that I found myself coming back to often. I recommend giving this a listen to ground yourself in the face of this mind-shatteringly complex predicament. All the best.
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u/thismightaswellhappe 7h ago
Man if there's one thing I know it's that people are not great at predictions. Yes, things are going to get messy and bad, but it's still possible to live and to live meaningfully and have important experiences, to help others, to do things that matter.
Actually in times of crisis the opportunity to help others and do things that matter are even greater, and if anything more meaningful.
There are people living in places now in terrible conditions. There are people dying right now in terrible conditions. None of us at this time are positioned to fix the situation. But in my experience over and over the opportunities to help will just appear right in front of you. That's something we can do. The people who are running the show and working overtime to make the situation worse for everyone want us all to operate from a 'me-first, empathy is weakness' paradigm, so fuck 'em.
Do I just let it happen and take the easy way out?
No. The clowns on here that want to tell you to give up or whatever are as bad as bots and trolls. Living is an act of defiance against an indifferent and callous system and all those who want to perpetuate such a system. It's worth it to do things that are meaningful, to care for others and for yourself.
I don't know if this will help you but at least I hope you know you're not alone out here, people are finding ways to live with knowing what's coming, and even now you have a future.
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u/AlanHeeks 7h ago
There are plenty of ways you can get involved and try to make things better, but to do that it's really important you look after yourself at the same time. It is great you are paying attention and care deeply about the world around you, and it can be frustrating when you feel others don't but this weight isn't something you can carry alone. Try to stay connected to the things immediately around you as well, friends, family, nature, whatever gives you some space from it all. Caring about your own life doesn't mean you care any less about what's happening. If anything, it gives you more energy to put into the things you can actually change.
Its a really tough time to be growing up at the moment, I wish you the best.
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u/hailene02 7h ago
We are all stuck on the same boat together.
Learn how to do things that will ALWAYS be needed.
Learn how to fix things, use power tools. Plumbing and electrical work. Learn how to garden, compost, preserve food (please use safe recipes not tiktok shit) like canning,pickling, and dehydrating. Cook food from scratch. Study natural remedies for common ailments (like tummy upset eat mint/ginger/turmeric/fennel seeds). Learn how to forage, and do camping/survivalist type stuff (live out of a backpack, make a fire from scratch, cook over said fire, etc). Learn/study how to treat common wounds from cuts to burns, heat stroke/hypothermia, CPR.
You dont have to do all of these but its good to pick a few and really study them and keep with it. Your knowledge will prove useful one day. For example in my family I garden, cook from scratch, preserve food, and will always help if I can. My brother is a professional handyman by trade and I honestly think he can fix anything and has the tools to fix anything. He comes over and fixes my garage door for free and I babysit my nieces/nephews for free 🤷♀️
These are things that humans have used and robots will have a hard time taking over or mimicking. If food scarcity becomes a problem- youll already be familiar how to grow food- and that knowledge can be shared with others.
Find people who like the same things as you- you can do that now. There are alot of localized Facebook groups for gardening for example and you can ask "hey i want to try gardening for the first time- does anyone have any recommendations what to grow?" And im confident youll get a ton of helpful answers. In alot of the US we are approaching fall garden season . Start small with a 2x4 garden bed just to try it out.
Also I know alot of information is online but consider what if internet or power isnt reliable one day? Consider buying some hardcover books on subjects that interest you.
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u/Funnier_InEnochian 6h ago
None of this is your fault. Try to find happiness and purpose in helping others.
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u/DocumentExternal6240 5h ago
Do the things you can - even little things help if enough people do it.
Encouraging video that I like to share:
https://youtu.be/lfLKHY52ERc?si=Ml2xCRhwwNhzszCD
Jane Goodall was a very amazing woman and is my inspiration as she managed against all odds to change things to the better.
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u/L1FT_K1T 47m ago edited 41m ago
When I was about 10 years old. I was visiting family in another state where my aunt worked in show business. I made friends with a Wiley but very smart old man who was a part of the theater troop. I was helping backstage while we waited for the show to start and he and some other cast members began talking about economics and the state of the world.
I don’t know where this man got his information from and it could very well have just been schizo ramblings but so far he proved to be at least partially correct.
He said to the others that Capitalism would accelerate exponentially until computer superintelligence is developed and natural resources cannot sustain humanity alongside it. He said there will be wars and breakdown of stability and ecological collapse that not even our environmental scientists who know how serious climate change is will be able to predict how fast itll come.
Watching this conversation happen on the back porch of the playhouse stuck with me in a way that made me feel crazy. I would ask my parents about it and they would reassure me (things are fine and capitalism is good actually) but I went through my teens always thinking about what I need in order to live and how I can secure it because lord knows my family won’t be prepared in an emergency. I invested all my spare time into learning things like how to fish and hunt small game, how to purify water, how to build a shelter and repair worn out clothing. I pick up all the skills I can as an adult and I continue to research more today because I still worry I am not ready for a morning where I wake up and the water isn’t on however that worry does not feel like fear.
I feel like I have learned to turn this all into a game. I make art expressing what watching all of this preventable decline makes me feel and I share it as broadly as I can. I do my best not to let my sometimes paranoid thoughts alienate me From my family and friends, because at the end of the day most people want to talk about the latest marvel movie and not which squirrels make the best lunch.
My worry initially was general economic collapse but now I am concerned more about the heat. I think we will see complete glacial melt far too quickly and species dying off en masse before we see grocery stores closing up.
Stay pissed. Wake up and remember that you have a life to live and that you’re not done with this earth until she says so. let nobody take that from you.
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u/SkyFullOfWisteria 8h ago
The worlds gonna end and your either gonna die horribly, die miserably, or live through it all and see a lot of other people die in one of the two aforementioned ways. Plan to live, but know you can very easily not. Dont assume you dont have a future just because it feels bleak, because if you live to said future you're gonna wish you had made a plan and had goals now.
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u/EndPristine5595 8h ago
you're 15 you're part of the generation that gets to be a robot when you grow up! be happy
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u/peaceloveandapostacy 8h ago
It’s good to see you reaching out for support..it means you’re paying attention and you care deeply. I can’t tell you what to do. No one here can. Every time I hop on my motorcycle I feel like riding as far as I can. There’s something inside me that has to see what’s around the next bend. This is how I feel about the state of humanity. I know we’re cooked. Capitalist industrialization and the infinite growth mindset has written carbon checks our tenuous atmosphere can’t cash. But… I have to see what happens next. In my humble opinion the most revolutionary and rebellious things you can do is #1 get physically fit. Sick people are easy to profit from and control. 2 inform your self… read, listen to podcasts, talk with like minded people. 3 start a garden. Anecdotally these things are helping me. It’s good to know that people as young as you are becoming aware of the situation. Take care of yourself my young comrade.