This Planet Hates Us and Actively Wants Us to Piss Off

[Faisul]

Germany's a pond, tornadoes in Oklahoma, and now Calgary is turning into the world's biggest underwater ghost town theme park. I've heard from second hand sources that Dras is ok, but I do worry, since it's kind of my job. Internet and power is out and I think 100.000 people might soon be homeless (or at the very least, have a soggy house) in the great province of Alberta. Major roads and transportation routes out of the province are cut by the floods, so if you want to leave, you can't. Great!

 

I hope you're ok, baby ;_;

 

I do know that topics with anything approaching substantive content beyond 'game is good' or 'xbox bad' are generally frowned upon here but I would like to point out that we may be actually witnessing the shift in climate paradigms, right now, that will end up in humanity living in Water World. And I hated that movie, and so should you, because it's not only a shitty movie but also a shitty existence!

 

So I guess this topic is kind of for me and others to flail around in and be kind of panicky in between offering words of encouragement to those touched by all this shit. I do hope people will be ok though. If anything's happened to Dras, I will be very difficult to deal with.

 

E: so it turns out Dras is making funnies about learning how to swim on Face, I think she's going to be ok. God damn, I need to learn how to breathe again.

[CrypticQuery]

On the plus side, seeing as she is alright, you could always rub this thread in her face while screaming I CARE ABOUT YOU.  That should net you some brownie-points.

 

Agreed on the overall tone and message of the thread, however - fortune be with whomever is in the path of a natural disaster-like occurrence. 

[Redeemer]

 we may be actually witnessing the shift in climate paradigms, right now, that will end up in humanity living in Water World.

 

Agreed. I've said this to some of my friends and they think I'm over-reacting, but honestly, stuff's happening and it's bad. The world is changing, the climate is changing and it's damaging to us, our structures and way of life. We need to start thinking ahead in order to adapt, otherwise we're screwed.

 

And I don't frown upon this topic! D':

 

Also, I think it'll take more than this to take Dras down, she's a force of nature herself! Scary stuff all the same, so awful, I hope it really doesn't get as bad as to make 100,000 people homeless. My thoughts are with her though, I hope she stays safe and sound.

[CrypticQuery]

Agreed. I've said this to some of my friends and they think I'm over-reacting, but honestly, stuff's happening and it's bad. The world is changing, the climate is changing and it's damaging to us, our structures and way of life. We need to start thinking ahead in order to adapt, otherwise we're screwed.

 

Here's hoping we'll be long gone by the time shit really hits the fan though; seeing as government can barely agree on basic issues let alone cooperate on an international scale to attempt to stall climate change I do not believe that this predicament will be rectified anytime soon.  Not to mention big business and their profits become involved, further complicating the issue politics-wise. 

[Faisul]

Yeah no the whole saving the planet idea by appealing to people's sense of reason and rationality in general is about as effective as farting into a cardboard box. You pretty much need a psychotic totalitarian government like the DPRK to force any of these shits to adopt green policies and stuff like emission reduction and carbon tax etc etc with any degree of punctuality. If not done at metaphorical gunpoint, congressmen and CEO's only accept change with a sort of shuffling, uninspired incompetence that can only be fucking intentional and actively malicious.

 

Doesn't help that most of these pricks come from megacorps and politics from the US, the nexus of doing whatever the fuck you want with no consequences or repercussions headed your way unless you are, you know, poor, which most people are nowadays. The rest of the world has generally accepted that climate change is real and anthropogenic, so the idea that we have to fellate a bunch of curmudgeonly Republican senators with Big Oil's fists up their asses in order to save the planet is not only insulting but also dangerously dismissive of the idea that you can just drag these one percenter fucks out into the streets and string them up by their checkbooks like you would fifty years ago.

 

The best hope for me right now long-term with the whole impending dark age of storms, floods, and corporate serfdom is to just enjoy myself and not have any kids and just kind of lie down and die when macdonalds becomes a government and oxygen is privatized while the planet falls apart around me.

[Fana McCloud]

I'd imagine we pissed off the planet first - it's just responding in kind. Makes me think of the Tool song where he prays for Los Angeles to fall in the freakin ocean: 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytZBD_Q5gwo

 

So maybe SOMETHING good will come from the apocalypse?

 

Why momma nature thinks Canada deserves to suffer though is beyond me, the people up there aren't so bad. : /

 

The rest of the world has generally accepted that climate change is real and anthropogenic, so the idea that we have to fellate a bunch of curmudgeonly Republican senators with Big Oil's fists up their asses in order to save the planet is not only insulting but also dangerously dismissive of the idea that you can just drag these one percenter fucks out into the streets and string them up by their checkbooks like you would fifty years ago.

 

And even if some one percenter heads started to roll, they'd use the corporate owned media to paint it as anything other than a justified backlash against an aristocracy so out of touch that they've forgotten that there are people other than themselves, and they too need to eat regardless of whether they meet their heinous calvinistic idea of a "deserving" person or not.

[Drasiana]

I'm alive, and okay in the literal and physical sense. I still have power and water but an extremely shitty phone connection with a data plan that I'm ruining and a half-working radio are the only portals to the outside world we have.

The pictures Faisul posted were from Canmore, where I am, and is ground zero for the floods here and boy do I tell you anyone who says this isn't climate change is on crack.

I grew up here. Not only is flooding like this fucking weird but rain itself is just unusual. Their million-dollar anti-flood barrier floated away within hours of this starting. We're trapped in town: not because the highways are flooded but because they are straight-up fucking gone, destroyed. If the rain doesn't stop and the roads don't get repaired we are going to run out of food.

The rest of Alberta isn't doing so hot. My brother and his wife and kids had to be military-rescued from High River, which has the most dickass name out of any towns here, but with Calgary half underwater I'm not sure if they've been evacuated further or to where. Where, in the South, is even left?

Props to my stepdad though. He is unable to return to town but he and his tiny crew of stragglers have been the only ones standing between the province and catastrophic hydro-electric dam failure.

Ill try to keep you guys updated but I don't know when the Internet will humour me again. Thanks for the concern guys!

[Faisul]

I'm so happy to hear you're alright, babe. Fingers crossed that this situation is resolved before food and water becomes critical.

[Harlow]

That's why I'm trying to evolve ASAP and grow gills...

...So far, so good...

Mother nature decided a country cannot be TOO perfect.

 

But seriously Dras, glad you're all ok. Although I thought that something (albeit much less severe) like that would happen yearly in there; all those glaciers n' ice 'n shit.

[Redeemer]

Dras, please stay as safe as possible, if you're running out of food, ration it and stuff. I really hope it calms down soon.

[TCPeppyTc]

So will the Canadian Military airlift food, and supplies into Alberta? Hopefully it will be handled better than New Orleans

 

My thoughts and prayers are with Dras and all other Candaians in need!

[Rin]

To me, it's really no secret that the planet is changing - it's been particularly noticeable in at least the past 2 years.

 

Glad to hear you're alright Dras. Hang in there and stay as safe as you can.

 

That goes to anyone else effected as well.

[Aiden O'Conner]

Holy shit, I know we don't really know each other but stay safe.

[Drasiana]

Still alive. Food trucks are getting into town somehow so it's not as bad as it could be. The military is helping to divert some of the floodwater, it hasn't got much better but hasn't got a lot worse either. Thank you again for being so caring guys! Hopefully my proper internet will be back soon!

[Ala1n-J]

I'm glad to hear you're OK, Dras. I was worried when I saw your Tumblr's posts. Take care, you and all other concerned.

[psy_commando]

You know, I facepalm really hard when people make jokes on "global warming", especially what SouthPark did.. Global Warming is a tiny change in average temperatures each years, not the atmosphere suddenly igniting... And given that just one degree can make the difference between ice and water.. No need to make a drawing I think... 

 

I wish people would understand that :

"Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man." - Stewart Udall

 

Earth isn't inhabitable because of magic.. If you'd live in an isolated apartment bloc with a closed ventilation system, and people began running barbecues, smoking, killing the janitors, eating as much as they can from the building's food supply and expecting it to resupply itself, crapping and littering thrash everywhere, do you think you could live there for long ? In the case of a building, you can always leave to another one, but try doing that with a planet....

 

And, given how people are misguided enough as to call people understanding that basic fact of life "hippies"....

Government are investing a crapload in stupid useless things... Plus, companies really need to get some morals knocked into their thick, expansive skulls... And China and India are really bent on completely poisoning, crippling, and exhausting their resources and population, and destroying their own turf to get a couple more dollars.. Which also happens to ruin things for everybody else..

 

Here's hoping we'll be long gone by the time shit really hits the fan though; seeing as government can barely agree on basic issues let alone cooperate on an international scale to attempt to stall climate change I do not believe that this predicament will be rectified anytime soon.  Not to mention big business and their profits become involved, further complicating the issue politics-wise. 

 

That's not really the best attitude though. Because, it essentially sums up as, "leave the problems to our kids".. Which the previous generations did, and it just made things worst..

 

So will the Canadian Military airlift food, and supplies into Alberta? Hopefully it will be handled better than New Orleans

 

My thoughts and prayers are with Dras and all other Candaians in need!

Well, the only thing worrying me is the government. Because, its hard to tell if we still have one..(Is it just me, or we don't hear anything anymore from the federal government ? Besides debates on buying f-35s... [i might be wrong though, its been a long while since I watched the news for more than 5 minutes..] )

 

And, of course, I really hope things turn out well for you all over there ! I wish I could do something to help

[CrypticQuery]

That's not really the best attitude though. Because, it essentially sums up as, "leave the problems to our kids".. Which the previous generations did, and it just made things worst..

 

It's not, but what more can we possibly do at this point?  Governments across the world are preoccupied with other matters that they deem more pressing, multiple corporate entities have their interests tied up in efforts such as rampant deforestation and will therefore not take conservation efforts lying down, the average person does not concern themselves with the environment and the big-picture thinking that is necessary to grasp it, etc. 

 

I'm not saying that we should leave the problem for the next generation, I'm saying that it is highly unlikely that notable action will be taken until it is far too late to reverse the damage.  The same mantra has occurred hundreds of thousands of times throughout history in regards to varying matters; don't do something about a potential problem until it becomes severe appears to be conventional wisdom now. 

[Drasiana]

Ok I kind of wish people would stop comparing this to New Orleans because this is not really the same situation.

Alberta is not a city, it's a province, and it's huge. This isn't just one city being effected here: Canmore, Banff, Calgary, Okotoks, High River, Bragg Creek, and more, some hundreds of kilometres away from each other. The military has been airlifting people off of rooftops, diverting water flow and other miscellaneous efforts. Some cities have been evacuated completely, and some cities like my own have been cut off from the rest of the province. The only way you can get to Calgary from anywhere west of here is to fly from Kelowna. Kelowna is halfway through BC. An entirely different province.

The CP rail has also been stalled. That giant famous railway we're known for has been washed out in this area.

Though right now, thankfully, the unconfirmed causality toll is only at 4 province-wide, which could be far worse. However in terms of damage, resources and transportation? This didn't just take out a city. It's taken out half the entire province and we are all going to suffer for a long time.

I don't even know when I'll be able to leave, but then again, there's nowhere left to go. The only way we're getting food is a tiny makeshift strip of barely-standing road, which is all that's left of our multi-lane highways.

People are beginning to bill this as the most destructive natural disaster in Canadian history.

[CrypticQuery]

Glad to see you're still doing well enough to be able to update us, Dras; stay safe out there! 

[ballisticwaffles]

It is very easy to simply say "My plan will solve all of our problems with minimal cost" or "Those evil fatcats are ruining our planet because of greed" the actual problem here is both dependency and economic improbability. Rather than immediately damning the obvious, which are the evil smog producing Captain Planet-esq factories, there is a problem that most of the plans to renovate the environment or fix the pollution problem are economically dependant or economically unsound. 

 

When a nation like India, a developing nation that needs its economic power to prevent attacks and to simply produce the goods that a developed nation desires, looks at a wind farm or a coal burning power plant, it takes the more obvious image of progress and power. While it is again easy to say "Well the windfarm is more aesthetically pleasing" It doesn't give the image of a powerful nation that both a government and its citizenry need. 

 

In a nation like the United States, with a bored and lazy population of primarily consumers, production amounts are key for a business to survive. When demand is up, the supply needs to go up else the prices go up. Simple economics. In the event that more care and inspection is taken in factories, it will not only drive up the cost of running a factory, but the cost of the goods produced in it as it would cost more money to prevent it from harming the biosphere. Look at the PS4 and the Xbox one, for a rather strange example. The Ps4 is $100 cheaper than its competitor, and this is a major selling point for it. For a car company, this change would be much more drastic in a price hike and would show poorly when people compare it with another car, cheaply made in a smog producing factory. And you and I would all go for the cheaper product if it is the exact same thing.

 

Please don't strawman me. I too wish that change would happen and everything would be fresh and clean and not pollute and all of that, but i cannot in good will bash the government because they dont change fast enough for a population that drastically hates change.

 

Also, Drasiana i hope you are okay and my heart goes to you and please be okay.

[StarFoxfan-FUR_ever]

How is it possible that I have not heard a word about all this happening from the news? Sure, I might not live in Canada, but it's on the same continent for crying out loud.

 

I hope you and all your family stay safe Dras.

[Drasiana]

Thanks again guys. Stepdad's home, one of our scary rivers is going to crest tonight but other than that nothing has got significantly worse and the town's done a good job of keeping its shit together.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't be so quick in blaming this entire thing on global warming after all. Apparently they get a flood like this roughly every hundred years, and one of the contributing factors is the underground river that normally flows beneath the creek just not being able to take it anymore. I can't speak for the rest of the province, but we do feed water to most of Southern Alberta. So...sorry about our freaky secret volatile monster river, guys.

f;e bro's friend's girlfriend being evacuated now with a warning that her house might be gone by 3am. Might've spoken too soon.

[Faisul]

E: stupid shitty foxmoticons, I mean

[Redeemer]

Shit, I keep checking back to see if there's any positive change. Stay alert, Dras.

[Drasiana]

Turns out there were no more evacuations and bro's friend is a dope who doesn't know the difference between "evacuation" and "voluntarily going to stay in a hotel". They're rationing water now and the ground is a giant gross sponge because of the rising water table but the storm is gone and it's sunny out. That's not so bad.