Of Climatic Essays and Cats
May. 5th, 2023 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Almost every spare minute not at work this week has been dedicated to writing various assignments my Master's in Climate Change Science and Policy, including a major data analysis of some 400 projects in the last decade involved in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, a presentation on neoliberal political ecology and related readings on capitalist conservation markets, as well as a broad major essay on climate change since the industrial revolution. Incredibly, I have managed to complete everything. Dozens of papers and a few books later, the Romain Rolland quote (paraphrased) about pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will weighs upon my mind. Capitalist property rights have turned conservation into another path for landlord-style accumulation and the global institutional powers show very little sign of making the hard and necessary changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; which means the pessimistic IPCC scenario should be considered probable; a temperature increase of 3.3 to 5.7 degrees C from pre-industrial levels by 2100. On the other hand, staring at disaster provides motivation because nothing is more important, this really is the most important issue of our lives and only our collective will and intelligence can prevent disaster.
Amidst all this, there has been a charming mental distraction, in the form of two felines who are visiting. My old friend Liana has taken a short holiday (which has been extended by some other not-so-holiday activities) and recalled my offer to be a pet sitter. Thus I have been in the company of Lucy and Bowie, who are a little confused by the absence of a big backyard to roam in, let alone their usual human servants. Bowie has remained quite distant, but Lucy has turned into a real smooch. A few mornings ago I was awoken by an incredible crash to find that somehow one or both of them had managed to tip over a fully laden bookcase, perhaps the most impressive example of a cat testing gravity I have witnessed. I can only infer that they got on top of the bookcase and then tried to get behind it; any other physics just doesn't make sense. As Archimedes apparently said: Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world. Cats are just experimental lay physicists.
Amidst all this, there has been a charming mental distraction, in the form of two felines who are visiting. My old friend Liana has taken a short holiday (which has been extended by some other not-so-holiday activities) and recalled my offer to be a pet sitter. Thus I have been in the company of Lucy and Bowie, who are a little confused by the absence of a big backyard to roam in, let alone their usual human servants. Bowie has remained quite distant, but Lucy has turned into a real smooch. A few mornings ago I was awoken by an incredible crash to find that somehow one or both of them had managed to tip over a fully laden bookcase, perhaps the most impressive example of a cat testing gravity I have witnessed. I can only infer that they got on top of the bookcase and then tried to get behind it; any other physics just doesn't make sense. As Archimedes apparently said: Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world. Cats are just experimental lay physicists.