This week on Thinking Is Cool š
Saving ourselves from climate disaster. What, like it's hard?
Stop what youāre doing right now and turn on one of these three songs: āBurninā Upā by the Jonas Brothers, āWe Didn't Start the Fireā by Billy Joel, or āAin't No Mountain High Enoughā by Marvin Gaye. Today, weāre talking about climate change. The mood has to be right.
Now that weāve given artistic credit where due (early Jonas Brothers > married Jonas Brothers), welcome back to another edition of the Thinking Is Cool newsletter. If this is the third day of a long weekend for you, I advise downing your Advil (take three) with Pedialyte (strawberry) and reading on. They do say the best hangover cure is a good podcast.
And boy do I have a good one for you. I pour figurative blood and sweat and literal tears into every episode of this show, but this one has a special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy listening and thinking as much as I did creating.
Right now, Iām about to give you a little more context for an episode that uses the words āgeological recordā and āanthropogenic.ā As always, you have two options:
Listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else immediately then come back here for more information after the credits roll. Recommended for canned cold-brew drinkers.
Read this and then listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else with more background. Recommended for French press users.
Whatever your preference, get amped for a really good, really thought-provoking episode. And some really good follow-up conversations. Letās do it.
This Week on Thinking Is Cool
You probably canāt save humanity from itself.
Itās a realization thatās as dread-inducing as it is freeing. When you recognize your own insignificance, you can really let go. You can also freak the F out. Iāve done both in making this episode.
Thatās because Iāve come to learn that my own actions are limited as far as reducing our likelihood of continued climate disaster is concerned. I can drink from a metal straw and reduce and reuse and recycle, but my singular decision-making probably wonāt keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, at least not during my lifetime.
Itās because I simply donāt have scale as a measly individual. Like most of us, I still try pretty hard to reduce my carbon footprint, but itās more to make myself feel better than it is to stop New York City from suffering through another 48-degree Memorial Day Weekend.
But what I lack in scale, I make up for in the commitment to figuring out whoās responsible. Thatās what this episode of Thinking Is Cool is about. To whom or what should we look for leadership when all 8 billion of us are staring down a problem as monumental as climate change? If not us, then who?
Hereās who: The real agents for change are public policymakers and corporate leaders. We all share in the guilt of turning this planet into a dumpster fire, but the capacity for doing something about it falls on those with scale. And anyone whoās ever been to the DMV or bought something on Amazon knows that our bureaucracy and the businesses that support it have no problem with heft.
If we really want to leave this planet livable for future generations, we have no choice but to reduce carbon emissions. And while it does feel nice to buy offsets when you travel by plane, the real change has to be bigger, broader, and messier to give us a fighting chance.Ā
We have to rethink entire systems and economies. We have to go through the painstaking process of unlearning all that fossil fuels have indoctrinated in us. We have to make it more expensive to be a polluter than it is to be an environmental steward.
Itās not going to be easy. But, as they say, itās not impossible.
And the good news is this: All we have to do is force the hands of policymakers and the corporate elite. We, as individuals, actually can do something to get the ball rolling. Well, two things, according to this weekās guests.
Talk
Vote
On talking: Most paradigm shifts start as conversations. Social change precipitates policy change. The more we talk about the life-altering and life-ending negative externalities of our fossil fuel economy, the more we get comfortable being uncomfortable with the future weāre staring down...the more we can affect change.
On voting: At the end of the day, itās our policymakers who are ultimately responsible for enacting climate-minded legislation. Itās that legislation that will in turn force corporations to adapt to new, greener standards (or die). And those policymakers, at least in theory, work for us.
With that, hereās what you can expect in this episode of Thinking Is Cool:
An honest and kinda depressing assessment of what weāve done to the planet in the post-Industrial Revolution years
A very quick turnaround to optimism, recognizing that all hope is actually not lost despite what you might see on the news
A call to arms for anyone who wants to avoid climate disaster but isnāt sure how or where to start
Perhaps our biggest commonality is that we only have one planet to call home, at least for now. We share this Earth and in that share responsibility for ensuring she can make it to see the next hundred, thousand, million years.
To defend our turf, we have to start talking. So listen to this episode, think about it, and then go talk to someone about climate change and accountability.
Iām sorry to be the one to tell you this, but āidk whatever you wanna doā just isnāt going to cut it this summer. Weāre seizing the day, being hot, and making decisions.Ā
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Now, the details of this weekās episode of Thinking Is Coolā¦
Who: This weekās guest list isnāt super long, but it is super stacked with insight. Youāll hear fromā¦
David Wallace-Wells, an American journalist whose climate coverage is known far and wide for being really good. He wrote the 2017 essay "The Uninhabitable Earth," which he later made into the 2019 book The Uninhabitable Earth.
James Casey, an associate professor of economics at my alma mater, Washington & Lee University, and the teacher whose environmental economics course inspired this entire episode.
Where: Everywhere, especially on Spotify and Apple. If youāre a cool alt pod listener, Thinking Is Cool is on all your platforms of choice too.
When: Now? Idk we published it last night sooo...
Why: Because itās good and itāll make you think.
How: See above.
Who again: Forward the episode to a friend and start a conversation.
See you Friday for another edition of the Thinking Is Cool blog. Have the best week ever.
Love,
Kinsey