on being a lying liar

[psocoptera]

So Junie heard people casually talking about the end of the world at a party and was very worried and so I got to give her the climate change talk. She indicated that she didn't want to be told anything too scary and so I gave her an overview of the concept of global warming and some of the ways it can be bad ("more hurricanes, the melting Arctic ice makes it hard for the polar bears, and when enough ice melts the oceans will rise a little") but told her that lots of people are trying to work very hard to make it not as bad as it could be ("look at our shiny solar panels! our shiny electric car!") and did not, you know, tell her that I expect the later part of her life to be an endless parade of climate-related disasters from which she might escape personal immiseration only by the relative privilege of our affluence, while billions of less-lucky people suffer, riot, starve, drown, etc. Touched very gently on "we might not be able to fix everything we wish we could, but it can make a difference just to feel like we're doing something", which I'm sure will be very comforting when she finds out people knew about this for forty years before she did and just didn't care. I don't know. I was never into the Santa thing, or the tooth fairy, but I guess I just don't want her to know yet how bad I think things are. I guess I did mention "the president trying to make California not make cars have to put out less of those gases" to give her some idea of how much some people oppose doing anything, so maybe she got a picture of the USian political-level situation at least. But I just... I don't know, I find it immensely bleak to be living in the decline and fall of my country and my civilization, I just want her to have a little while longer before she has to move there too. :(

Comments

[glassonion]

Yeah, sorry about that? I kind of wondered if i should steer the conversation away because the kids were there, and opted not to; i'm happy to hear your opinions on that for the future.

[oracne]

She will find out more eventually. A little at a time might be easier to assimilate.