It is typical grey and rainy October weather, though I am still mostly moving around in shorts and a t-shirt. People look at me like I am strange as they are rugged up, but I acclimatise myself to be warmer when it is colder, which I think is a pretty good gamble in Finland. Many are already sliding into light winter jackets, which means when real winter arrives and it is 35 degrees Celsius lower than it is now, they are going to be freezing their proverbials off. Last winter, I barely wore a jacket, unless on a longer walk outside.
At least for me, I think it makes sense to prepare for the averages, which is also part of the reason I generalise so much. I get called up on it by some people who say I generalise too much without considering individual conditions, but I disagree. When talking about larger groups and conditions, generalisation is the only way to go, otherwise the conversation is pointless as it is filled with endless caveats and exceptions. This makes conversations inactionable and the exceptions become the excuses for why nothing gets done. Climate change is a good example of this.
There should be close to zero argument around climate change.
And the arguments there are should be how to deal with it. Because it doesn't matter if it is man-made or a natural event, we as humans can only live in a narrow band of conditions so we should be doing all we can to ensure that band of conditions is stable - And the stability for those conditions depends on our environment. If we keep destroying the environment, reducing biodiversity, and pouring pollution into the land, air and water, the conditions can do nothing else but become more volatile.
Yet, so much of what holds us back from investing into creating a stable environment is due to wealth generation from fossil fuels and environmental practices that improve profits, at the expense of the environment. As I have said before, the most important invention we need right now is clean, free energy. Energy shouldn't be a profit-making industry at all and instead should be a given in order to build brilliant innovations. Obviously, that goes against the current energy model, where governments will make deals with dictators to get access.
Clean energy isn't just about limiting environmental impact, but having the ability to reverse the damage and restore biodiversity, forests, and clean the air, water and soils. With clean energy, cleaning machines are unconstrained by power needs, which means they can be built large and power hungry, but highly effective. Factory-size vacuum cleaners pulling in polluted air, cleaning and pumping out fresh air. Massive autonomous filters that scour the ocean and pull contaminants out. Underground farms built below enormous areas of reforestation. Coastal deserts turned into wetlands through desalination of sea water. And repopulation of animals in sea, on land and in the air.
The thing is though, that while clean energy would make this highly efficient, it is possible to get started now. Most of what we use our energy for in this world is irrelevant busywork and is largely environmentally unfriendly. This means it is doubly-harmful at least, because it both does direct harm and takes away the opportunity to do something else. Every action has an opportunity cost, and harmful action has a high cost. So does inaction when it comes to what needs to be done.
We keep acting as if we do not understand the implications of our actions, polluting, consuming, shooting missiles at each other. we are behaving like primitives who have not yet discovered how we effect our world. But we aren't primitive, we are just ignorant and unwilling.
Busywork is an energy sink
Redirect resources to making the environment better and I believe a few interesting things happen. Yes, many industries would die out and many more would have to fundamentally change their business models, but there would be a demand for new industries and massive growth in environmentally sound sectors. Not only that and perhaps more importantly, the "busywork" would start to disappear releasing energy to be spent on meaningful, positively impactful work that people are happy to do, because it matters.
It seems to be hard for people to imagine a world where everyone is part of adding positive value, where the environment is clean, safe and enjoyable to live within. A place where farmland disappears underground, filled with forests, cities are built with green space, clean air and water, and Time for people to enjoy it. A beautiful world, rather than one that is ripped apart to service the few.
If AI is going to make itself useful, it is going to have to be redirected from improving efficiency of busywork activity toward improving the efficiency of real work activity. All those data centres that will currently be used to feed entertainment and control, should first turn their energy attention to improving environmental conditions of earth. To secure habitability for humanity and ensure that practices align and are sustainable into the future. This shouldn't be a few companies struggling for funding and making little impact, it should be the entirety of humanity bending all its resources toward a better world.
It is pretty sad that given all the information and resources we have, we still can't organise ourselves to improve our world, and can only keep on degrading it. Slowing the destruction isn't going to cut it, we have to reverse environmental destruction and turn it into environmental construction. We have the ability, but where is the will?
Power corrupts.
No one wants the world to become inhabitable, yet because we have an economic model that rewards environmental destruction instead of development, we are all aligned to make things worse.
We have the power, but we are corrupted.
Taraz
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Your initial comment about wearing shorts in Finland during October struck a chord with me. Coming from the Caribbean and settling here in Ontario, that transition was a lesson in reality from Mother Nature. During my first autumn, I made the rookie mistake of bundling up in heavy layers as soon as the temperature dropped to 10 °C. By the time January rolled round, with temperatures of -25 °C and a bone-chilling wind chill, my body had lost all tolerance for the cold; I had no more clothes left to cover myself with and nowhere left to hide. You quickly learn that nature doesn’t negotiate with your comfort zone: either you adapt to the basic conditions, or you suffer the extremes.
Moving from the pace of the tropics to the hyper-industrialised engine of North America, it’s astonishing just how much energy—both kinetic and human—is wasted. We consume finite resources and processing power on artificial emergencies—bureaucratic red tape, marketing algorithms and pointless tasks created solely to pad quarterly spreadsheets—whilst ignoring the very foundations that make our existence possible.
We treat the environment as an external accounting item, rather than recognising it as the narrow—and non-negotiable—biological corridor that keeps us alive.
We humans have an astonishing capacity to adapt; I see it every winter, when people manage to thrive even in sub-zero temperatures. But adaptability has its physical limits. You can acclimatise to a harsh season, but you cannot acclimatise to barren soil, toxic water or collapsed ecosystems.
I was still wearing shorts at -20 for short walks. I used it as a way to teach myself about pain :D
It saddens me, but unless billions of people change, we are going to continue on this path until the end. At least the end won't be too far away.
And when it happens at such a pace that all the infrastructure we have is no longer viable, we just collapse into civil violence.
I think AI is needed to improve a lot of things that you might call busy work and only then it will be redirected to solve important issues like climate change.
People also have to experience rapid degradation of the environment to believe that climate is changing...
I am not so sure it will be redirected, because to do so would undermine the businesses that control it.
Silly, isn't it? It is like people have to experience getting their legs chopped off to understand having legs is preferable.
Even I can tell through the barrier of distance through the lens of the blockchain that you tend to be the boiler of oceans. ;)
You are right though. Humans are a self consuming cancer as a whole because of the pursuit of wealth. Once that wealth is achieved, the hoarding doubles down and doesn’t slow down.
I think the same way but try and behave like my actions and thoughts have more influence on the greater good than they actually do.
Hoping that cooperation, virtue and little wins become the desired news of choice again soon! Til then, we have to dig for it and create it.
I don't need to boil the oceans - we as a collective are already doing that :D
The wealthy aren't to blame either, because they are just following the algorithm and incentives. We have aligned ourselves poorly. The industrial revolution went in the wrong direction due to a lack of understanding early enough. But, to keep heading in the same direction even with the understanding, that is just pathetic.
I think we should all do this.
"I don't need to boil the oceans - we as a collective are already doing that :D"
Touche!
Then let's!
Not sure how much AI can help us with the environment when the data centers are so bad for it.
Yes they are terrible. Bit it isn't the energy used as much as what it is used for. And then, if there was clean energy, it is fine. But rather than using all that processing power to make the world better, it is used to make more adverts and porn.
Today here we have 14 degrees Celsius. We are already heating up the house for maybe a three or four days. I was really hoping that we would need to heat it up only starting next month. But few of our neighbours advised us to heat up the house because humidity is not good for the house.
Yeah, the humidity can be bad for many houses, especially if there isn't adequate airflow.
I agree with ice man.. we should take care of our planet..
Having the technology isn't necessarily the problem. Organising ourselves well enough to use it for the right purposes seems to be the much harder challenge.
We can organise ourselves to spend trillions on watching sports, but can't stop pollution.
Honestly…our misplacement of priorities is getting out of hand as the day goes by
Such a thought-provoking post on climate change and how we use our energy! Thanks for sharing this perspective!
Again - another useless comment. Add some thought and value.
I am really sorry. Different people engage in different ways—some just leave a quick note out of genuine warmth and friendliness, while others share deep personal thoughts. I fully respect your work and realize my short comment didn't quite match the depth of your post. My bad. I won't bother you with comments anymore. Wishing you all the best! 👍
Life is already demanding enough without making it harder for ourselves, so I think learning to recognise what drains us and setting some boundaries can make a real difference.
Acclimatizing warm so the real winter doesn't flatten you is a strategy this bee respects — most creatures do the opposite and regret it in January. Finland in shorts while everyone else bundles up sounds like its own small act of rebellion! ❄️🐝
People should come to a new attitude about nature and proper coexistence with it