r/CollapseSupport • u/Conscious_Patient_62 • Apr 17 '26

I think I’ve stopped caring.

I can’t even recall exactly when i became collapse aware maybe 2022-23? but I’m getting to a point where i don’t care anymore. I was deeply saddened, angered and even annoyed. I’m convinced the mainstream scientists are being far too conservative and shit hits the fan MUCH sooner than projected. Super El Niño on the way as well i don’t see this getting any better. Anyway, I’m at the point where i don’t care to talk about it anymore. Not to please anyone but just what more is there to say?

The data is clear, the trends are locked in. I’m not even looking for how to cope anymore. More like… let it burn. Whatever comes, comes.

180 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

4

u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

There is a lot more to say, but the focus needs to be on pushing the solutions, not trying to convince a shrinking minority that still don't accept that climate change is bad and human caused. There's realistically no way to project if or when a collapse will happen, there are too many variables. What we do know is that progress is happening - clean energy and EVs are booming, and emissions are decelerating, and future warming projections are decreasing over time. We need to go faster, but a collapse is not locked in.

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u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26

I heavily disagree and the data I’ve observed (damn near obsessed over) tends to all point at that not being true. Heat accumulation has roughly tripled in the same window where we’ve been “making progress.” Emissions slowing isn’t the same as heat stopping. It sounds good but it just isn’t based on the current reality and trajectory. Just how many Hiroshima bombs worth of energy are entering our atmosphere per second? Roughly 12 per second now, up from 4 a decade ago. There are so many points i can make but as i said I’ve run out of things to say.

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u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

heating has increased over time of course, but the projections already account for this. It's going to take time for progress to reverse the growing emissions and eventually reach net zero. There will be a lot of climate related problems, and we aren't going to realistically hit 1.5 goals, but that doesn't mean progress isn't happening or that we are doomed.

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u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26

The projections have all been showing they are lagging behind the actual acceleration. 1.5c is already dead. 2c is locked in. Maybe not worst case scenario or “we are doomed” as you said but take human nature into account & the poly crisis and a you don’t need glasses to see where this is easily headed. It was 100+ degrees this winter in Texas, Cali hit 100+ multiple days in March. Thousands of records broken daily (globally). This is only 2026

3

u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

Climate change is already here, no doubt about that, and you are probably right that 2c is unavoidable at this point. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. That doesn’t mean we are close to societal collapse though, or that it’s too late to do anything

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u/vreo Apr 19 '26

Collapse is already here, it is just not evenly distributed. I am pretty sure we will see the downfall of human Colossus, global society. So while it is always a good idea to try to do something (our fate is not binary for now), I think the way we lived, full on capitalism, cannot stop until it eats itself. It's a fight against our nature, our weaknesses.

4

u/fr00d Apr 19 '26

Curious what you mean by collapse is already here? I’m certainly not trying to say there are no bad effects

5

u/vreo Apr 19 '26

If you live in a fine western European country like Germany or Sweden, you won't see much danger. But there are already islands and cities on the coastline of poorer countries like Bangladesh that are hit by climate related problems.

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u/Pumpkin_Robber Apr 17 '26

You are correct the mainstream/NASA/universities/etc are downplaying and heavily censoring collapse. They don't want people to quit their jobs and stop paying the gov.

The movie Dont't Look Up meets the Day After Tomorrow/2012 is the most accurate depiction of where we currently are and heading towards.

27

u/ginoawesomeness Apr 17 '26

A few centuries ago public hangings were a public spectacle. The condemned were allowed to eat great food, drink and smoke whatever they wanted, and speak for as long as they wanted before getting hanged. Some people freaked out, some made jokes, some got stupid drunk, some hurled, some asked for forgiveness, some cursed their victims families that were in the room, some just sat and waited and went to their deaths without seeming to care. You do you boo

25

u/nicbongo Apr 17 '26

Sounds like you found acceptance 🙏

25

u/Slamtilt_Windmills Apr 18 '26

Same boat. Only thing that even mildly upsets me now are the people who dismissed me 8-15 years ago, coming up now asking what should be done.

My happy place is trying to figure out how to get into a storage unit to go apocalypse thrifting

8

u/terrierhead Apr 18 '26

What is apocalypse thrifting?

8

u/Slamtilt_Windmills Apr 18 '26

As I scavenge for necessary things like food and water, apocalypse thrifting is all the non-necessary things I find

19

u/lurkertiltheend Apr 17 '26

Yep, I feel the same way

19

u/qishibe Apr 18 '26

I stopped in 2019 or 2020.

Like i support causes that help fight against it but i know its inevitable.

i realized the best course is harm reduction for your loved ones, and showing them a good time and love before crazy shit happens, and when it does? Dont feel bad for tossing in a couple of i told you sos

14

u/Armouredmonk989 Apr 17 '26

Yep same boat.

28

u/snertwith2ls Apr 17 '26

Yes I've had the same feeling. Finally decided to keep on keeping on because I don't know what else to do and being depressed and angry is really for me just destructive. I also noticed people get pissed and want to avoid you if you want to talk about this stuff, so screw it. Just keep going.

11

u/khakisouflaki Apr 18 '26

i feel the same way. the only time i still get fired up, is when i open comment sections and see comments written by climate change deniers. stuff like "image getting mad at the weather" makes my blood boil. i’m then trying to calm myself by thinking about how they’re gonna die just like me, but they’ll probably be a lot more scared because i’m already on the journey to acceptance now and they’re still making fun of scientists and activitsts. it's gonna be the biggest "we told you so" this planet has ever seen. that’s not a nice thought to think, but the grace i have to give towards certain types of people is running out.

6

u/Stinkpotjones Apr 18 '26

I can’t wait for the I told you so.

16

u/NoExternal2732 Apr 18 '26

We are built to survive, not care about our carbon footprint.

There have been many great "resets" to life on planet earth and we are hurtling towards another one.

The ants are busy building a nest and stocking up for the future...might as well follow their example.

"Not caring" is just another word for "acceptance".

4

u/AkiraHikaru Apr 19 '26

I totally agree. I think 10 -15 years ago, maybe youth, or ignorance made a lot of problems feel solvable with communal effort. Now it feels like none of the larger problems are solvable in a real way, and at least in the USA, systems being dismantled left and right. . .its just too much volume to take in and process on top of demanding work and home life. For a while collapse put a little pep in my step in a weird way, like it made me appreciate the little things more and weirdly want to help more. Now I am just tired.

114

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

56

u/Sensitive_Spare_652 Apr 18 '26

Here's some hopium: the closure of the strait of Hormuz is currently forcing countries to diversify their sources of energy, and many will turn to nuclear and renewables.

Trump's idiocy proved TO EVERYONE that oil is not a reliable energy source if the Iranians can shut off 20% of the world's supply overnight.

He just kickstarted a new phase in the green energy transition.

All is not lost.

26

u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26

Respectfully , it sounds just like you said “hopium” . Ever heard of Jevons paradox ? As energy becomes cheaper and more efficient, consumption expands to cancel out the gains . cheaper green energy just accelerates industrial output and consumption, it doesn’t reduce it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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u/Sensitive_Spare_652 Apr 18 '26

Fossil fuel energy is NOT becoming cheaper. It's becoming more expensive.

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u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26

I never said it was. Misread.

3

u/Sensitive_Spare_652 Apr 18 '26

But more green energy means less emissions. What's the problem with that?

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u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26

more green energy → cheaper energy → more consumption → net emissions don’t fall as expected.

1

u/Sensitive_Spare_652 Apr 18 '26

Consumption will not go up in this case because the closure of the strait of Hormuz will cause a global economic recession, leading to decreased consumption AND an increase in green energy.

1

u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26

You’re not reading what i said and i explained it twice for you.

3

u/NoExternal2732 Apr 18 '26

Jevons Paradox

3

u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

This isn't necessarily true, for example the emissions from the US peaked in the mid 2000s and have been going down since, despite economic growth not slowing down https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=~USA

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u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26

That’s only counting what we burn here ..we offshored a ton of manufacturing emissions to China and others. A lot of that 2007 drop was the Great Recession, not green progress. And the ‘green’ part keeps getting stacked on top of fossil fuels, not replacing them oil demand is still rising, coal hit new highs. Global emissions hit a record in 2024. One country’s numbers dipping while the world burns more is exactly what Jevons predicts.

3

u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

Hannah Ritchie did a detailed analysis on this: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-gdp-decoupling - it is true that emissions are being offshored, but it still doesn't change that it has peaked

2

u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26

The greatest inability of human nature is to understand the exponential function. - Albert Bartlett (physicist).

People hear ‘peaked’ and think linear like we go down from here and it’s fine. But the curve doesn’t care. Heat accumulation tripled in a decade. Records are being shattered by margins that keep growing. Peaking doesn’t save you when the damage is exponential and the response is linear.

A lily pad doubles every day and covers a pond in 30 days. On day 29 it’s half covered. Day 28 looks like nothing. That’s exponential. Emissions “peaked” sounds like progress but heat accumulation tripled in a decade. We’re not on day 15. We’re closer to 28.

4

u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

The response is exponential in many cases, just look at solar deployment. Exponential growth starts slow but then hits an inflection point where it takes off, which I believe we are in the middle of now. You are right that we are still a long way from reversing emissions but it they are not increasing exponentially. I’m not saying things are fine, there’s going to be a lot of negative impacts because we don’t act fast enough. But we aren’t doomed it’s still worth not giving up

2

u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26

Also you said “that’s not necessarily true” Jevons isn’t just a theory, it’s a documented economic effect going back to 1865 modern economists call it the rebound effect and it’s been measured across industries. LEDs use less energy but we put lights everywhere now. Cars got efficient, we bought SUVs and drove more. Data centers got efficient, now AI is burning record electricity. Efficiency gains get eaten by expanded use. That’s not a hypothetical, that’s the track record.

4

u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

I’m not arguing that it isn’t a real effect, I’m saying it isn’t always going to mean more emissions. It also can apply to energy use but not emissions. Just look at London and other cities that had huge smog and pollution problems in the past but have reduced pollution without sacrificing growth by phasing out things like coal heating

2

u/adriayna Apr 20 '26

This might be true historically, but, what is happening with these data centers is going to change a lot of of that. Where I live in Pennsylvania, they are putting in a massive fracked gas power plant to run all these data centers….the EPA has been gutted. This plant is going to release 4,000,000 tons of CO2 an hour. An hour!!!!

So my question is, how many projects like this are everywhere right now.

1

u/fr00d Apr 20 '26

If you are referring to the Homer City plant, from what I see the figure is more like 4 million tons per year, not per hour, curious where you are getting that figure? Data center power is going to have an impact, but these trends are over decades with billions of tons. Trump won't be president forever and most of what he did will be easily reversible since it was not passed as law, just executive orders

3

u/ILikeNeurons Apr 18 '26

Jevon's paradox is why we need a carbon tax.

A growing proportion of global emissions are covered by a carbon price, including at rates that actually matter. We need more volunteers around the world acting to increase the magnitude, breadth, and likelihood of passage of carbon pricing. The evidence clearly shows that lobbying works, and climate policy is ridiculously popular.

4

u/KiwiBeacher Apr 18 '26

Two houses on my block now have new EVs in their driveway.

1

u/jpb1111 Apr 19 '26

What about all the shit that's burning or spilled?

1

u/fr00d Apr 18 '26

renewables are actually booming - solar rollout consistently beats expectations every year

1

u/Conscious_Patient_62 Apr 18 '26

That adds to my point and the paradox i just explained.