2013

I keep seeing people posting links on Twitter that say something like 'why is no one talking about climate change??' and then link to a vaguely or explicitly apocalyptic article about Just How Bad things are getting, and how they are going to get worse in the coming years. Then in the next tweet the poster moves on to a link about the next gadget or professional skill.

It's presumably meant as a rhetorical question. The first answer I think of is pretty straightforward – climate change is big, complex, impersonal, long-term, uncertain, and requires action without there being a straightforward set of actions to take, especially not for 'regular' individuals who are likely to just feel powerless about it all.

When I start thinking a bit more deeply, however, I realise that I don't know much at all. I have a bit of the zeitgeist; I've read a few articles and watched a few nature documentaries. I'm not up to date on the science, policy, or major people in the field. I don't really know what seems like a move forward versus what's a nicely worded bit of greenwashing.

I've been meaning to get back into blogging for a while, and since it's a new year, I decided to make a plan: spend a year systematically trying to understand what's going on - in science, politics, technology, sociology, and design. I guess what I'd like to start figuring out is what we need to really want to start talking, and what are the actions we can take - individually and collectively - that won't just be spitting into the wind.

We'll see how it goes.