[Rantman] Young adult asks for guidance...

[Richard Pauli]

So many people have heeded the call to offer support and guidance on the 
quintessential question of:  What do we do now?
This posting touched a nerve today at the premier global warming blog 
ClimateProgress.org - I had to pass it along.  Some of the greatest 
wisdom will be found in the comments - click the link to follow them


    What should Ian do with his life?
    <http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/>


      He wants advice on what an individual can do to help humanity now

http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/


What should Ian do with his life?

Posted By_Joe_On January 9, 2011 @ 11:27 am In_Climate Progress_|_49 
Comments 
<http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/print/#comments_controls>_

A 25-year-old reader of ClimateProgress is at a turning point in his 
life, and he is asking CP readers for advice.

He posted the comment below in the Open Threadhere 
<http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/08/weekend-open-thread-9/#comment-317400>^[1] 
, inspiring a few good responses, but I wanted more people to see this, 
so I'm pulling it up into a separate post.

UPDATE:  Ian provides more background --- and a big thank you to readers 
--- in the comments belowhere 
<http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/#comment-317528>^[2] 
.  He has a degree in film production.

    Hey everyone,

    My name is Ian and I've posted on CP a few times so maybe some of
    you will recognize me. Since its an open thread I'll throw in my
    personal dilemma and hopefully its not too off-topic. I may disagree
    with some people here, but I trust all of you. I think we're all
    deeply concerned and perhaps scared about our collective future.

    I'm at a crossroads in my life and I don't know what to do. It has
    taken me a while to fully accept the reality of our world and our
    ecological crises. But I think I get it now. Human beings have been
    destroying the environment for a long time and we are showing no
    signs of stopping until we reach a point of collapse. Most human
    beings in the world have little to no understanding of the situation
    we're in. Even a stereotypical liberal-type may understand and
    accept the reality of climate change but has no understanding of the
    urgency required to address it or the underlying (insane) economic
    system driving it and many other modes of environmental destruction.
    Its all really, really, really sad and heartbreaking.

    So, I don't really know what to do with my life. I'm 25 and I had a
    lot of goals and dreams I wanted to chase but I've now given up on
    them because I realized our civilization is imploding. As Joe (and
    many others) have said numerous times, it is our moral
    responsibility to act. I want to do something significant and
    daring. I tend to lean toward acts of high risk for some reason but
    its something I've done throughout my life and I'm uncomfortable
    doing things people expect. I am not well suited to canvass or make
    phone calls working for an environmental organization because I
    think these actions are ineffective though important in their own
    way. I'm also thoroughly unsatisfied with improving my personal
    sustainability. Again, reducing one's carbon footprint is essential,
    but will ultimately do nothing to stop our economic engine from
    burning up everything.

    So, I've posed this question in different forms here on CP, but what
    do you guys think I should do? I'm thinking I could chain myself to
    the White House lawn every day for a year and hope someone from the
    Administration will talk to me. But thats probably pretty stupid
    because I'll just go to jail many times and no one in a position of
    power will notice anyway. Or I could corner Keith Olbermann or
    Rachel Maddow and make them understand what is going on and convince
    them to only do shows about climate. Also totally unrealistic but
    maybe its worth a shot just to say I tried. Or I could find the CEO
    of ExxonMobil and somehow corner him and ask him why he's so
    hell-bent on trashing our planet. Also pretty unrealistic. Or I
    could move to Oklahoma and run for the House of Representatives
    against any of their current Reps. on a platform of addressing peak
    oil and climate change. There's no way I'd win or even be taken
    seriously but maybe I could shake things up a little and get some
    publicity.

    I know all those ideas probably sound crazy but I would definitely
    be willing to do any or all of them. The stakes are just too high
    and I can't live my life feeling like I'm doing nothing. I'm not at
    all expecting to go out there and completely change the world. No
    way that will happen but maybe there is some small part I can play
    in doing SOMETHING to help our planet.

    Also, I have many people in my life that love me and care about me
    and I'm afraid for their future. I feel I owe it to them to help do
    SOMETHING.

    What do you guys think I should do? Any suggestions? There isn't a
    lot of time left, unfortunately.

    Thanks everyone.

    Sincerely,
    Ian

Ian, I don't recommend people waste time trying to persuade the 
unpersuadable.  I also think that it is a mistake to shoulder the burden 
of the false belief that one person can, over a short period of time, 
make a huge difference.  That very rarely happens and when it does 
happen it's usually because that individual has been planning for a long 
time.

It is important to choose a course of action that is itself 
sustainable.  You don't help anybody if you burn out.  The anti-science, 
pro-pollution extremists work hard to thwart near-term action, knowing 
that it will disillusion idealists.  Don't let them succeed at that.

You are 25 and have your whole life ahead of you, so if you want to do 
something significant and daring, I suggest you start by developing a 
strategic plan that builds on your strengths.  That's what I did a few 
years ago, which is how I ended up blogging.

But let's here what CP readers think.  Many of them have tackled the 
same tough questions you have.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from Climate Progress:*http://climateprogress.org*

URL to 
article:*http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/*

URLs in this post:

[1] 
here:*http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/08/weekend-open-thread-9/#comment-317400*

[2] 
here:*http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/#comment-317528*

Clickhere 
<http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/print/#Print>to 
print.


If you are interested, be sure to read some of the very intelligent 
comments 
http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/09/what-should-ian-do-with-his-life/#comment-317441

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