It is already broadly accepted that we are already experiencing a massive mass extinction event - the Anthropocene Extinction.
I think critics don't really understand the scale or scope of the changes humans have made to the planet and the negative results for all other species. Global warming is just one issue, perhaps one of the most pressing, but it also blinds people to the devastation of deforestation, coral reef loss and a multiple of other man made disasters.
The dress, fashion, and lingo of the nutbags that hung out at my house changed, but their personality characteristics and complete inability to engage in multivariate analysis of reality was identical.
Radical ideologues and radical religious fundamentalists are, for me, 2 sides of the same coin. And both have a tendency to turn the movements they claim to represent into caricatures of themselves.
Apocalyptic environmentalists have moved beyond a certainty of the problem of climate change to a certainty on THE ONE AND ONLY SOLUTION, which is a radical reduction in standard of living in the industrialized world being the answer.
My father was never able to do anything beyond simple algebra. He thinks in terms of stories and narratives. He won't listen to my brother or myself when we try to actually talk to him about numbers and reality and whatnot, saying we are too young to know anything. But minutes later in the same conversation, he will start talking about how wonderful Greta Thunberg is. For him, it's all emotion and feeling and "doing something".
It's fucking unbearable, and my siblings and I are at a point where we avoid visiting him at his home, because he just won't stop parroting deranged talking points. His friends will frequently be there, and the constant one-upping of them with various moral posturing is nauseating.
Thing is, what's actually at stake - modern industrial civilization - is scary enough on it's own. Under the worst scenarios, the planet will be fine, the environment will be fine, life will be fine, even humans will continue to live. But bad climate scenarios have the potential to throw humans back into pre-industrial times (and populations) and critically - do so permanently. Easy coal and oil resources are gone, so the industrial revolution cannot happen a second time. Pre-industrial civilization also can't support all the people on earth today, so this necessarily means mass casualties.
This is all very scary and very real on it's own without the need for hyperbolic embellishment.
I think there's some valid frustration when lip service is paid and then all that comes of it is some token stuff like boutique tax credits for EVs and residential solar installs, but the money trunks get rolled right out when it's the financial crisis, major wars, COVID response, etc. I'm not saying those aren't valid things to have mobilized for, but it's clear that western society as a whole still thinks of climate solutions as catering to a special interest group rather than as something that is a priority.
And maybe that's fine if it's reflective of public sentiment. But the perception of never-ending angry protestors is not just because they're unsatisfiable. It's also because very little has actually happened.
IMO, the biggest thing that has been done is that renewable power and EV transportation have now become cost competitive. Both of those, especially the first, required a lot of government subsidization to get volumes up so that the learning effect could take effect.5
Iceland runs mostly on renewable energy: https://reneweconomy.com.au/iceland-a-100-renewables-example....
Europe and USA have both actively reduced emissions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement#/media/File:Pe...
Back when I was in journalism, it was always annoying for the reporters to pick some random person from the crowd holding signs and ask them about the issue only to find out that they didn't even know what the protest was about, and were just there to get a check.
Protesters-as-a-Service, I guess.
"AOC has said we have about 10 years until humanity is extinct."
"This is a technique of the GOP, to take dry humor + sarcasm literally"
"Like the "world ending in 12 years thing", you'd have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it's literal"
So you're either purposefully misrepresenting the quote, or you're a sea sponge.
> all the solutions to climate change are marxist
> adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security
When did those things become marxist? Those are the basics that any modern society should make available for people -- and nearly all do, except for the USA.
> They dont want nuclear or solar panels
Who is 'they'? I certainly want nuclear and solar panels and electric transportation, if it means my kids can grow up in a sustainable and stable world.
> What exactly did I say?
You said:
> Climate change is just a political tool to push an agenda which is not popular on its own.
> They dont want nuclear or solar panels on every house
> AOC has said we have about 10 years until humanity is extinct.
Where are the sources for those? Are they facts? Or do they read like propagandist misinformation?
You also edited your comment to take out the "marxist" jibe - why?
Activism, in general, is no stranger to hyperbole. But the most peculiar thing is how so many people with this apocalyptic mindset also happen to be staunchly anti-nuclear. I've also noticed the changes they demand are effectively impossible to enact politically. Tragically, this just means they get angrier and angrier that so little progress is being made.