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Nigel Southway's avatar

Dad, when you were a kid, why did everyone waste their time on NetZero ?.. we just studied it at school, and learnt how stupid the western government’s were in adopting that NetZero thing.

Well Son…. we had different governments back then that allowed science to be outmoded by political motives, and they listened to the UN that is now disbanded for its crimes against nations.

At the time the UN had a lot of power and thought a climate emergency would be a common enemy and stop wars, well they should have known better as they tried that with global trade, and it just made things a lot worse.

Dad, was the climate a problem back then?

No son…. its hardly changed at all .. a bit warmer and a lot greener and we have made sure we funded any adaption needed, but we stopped the waste of NetZero before it destroyed our western civilization.

Son, your teacher is correct…...we were stupid back then.

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Jan Steinman's avatar

It looks like SubStack's "block" function doesn't actually work.

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Iona Conner's avatar

WOW, Matt, you have done it again. I LOVE THIS!!! I could write an article about the discussions/arguments I had with myself over Christmas gifts and the futility of it all, the sham. I ended up donating $5 for each of 18 people -- well, 16 people and 2 pets -- on my list to the Old-Growth Forest Network in their names but then my BFF frankly told me that most people wouldn't consider that a real gift so I went out and bought little trinket-types of new things to fill the traditional Christmas Pudding basket my grandfather started. After he and Grandma had bought "real" gifts for everyone, he went alone to the 5&10 cent store, remember those? and bought each of us something small. He wrapped them up, tied a string around each one, and at the other end of the string was a tag with our names on it. On the count of 3, after dinner, we would pull our strings and open our little presents. It was so much fun that I've carried it on for many years. This year, I almost gave up but didn't. Habits are hard to kill. So, on Christmas day, everyone will have a $5 invisible gift for the trees and something they probably don't need from the Christmas Pudding. My heart (and you) tell me it's time to celebrate Solstice again. Thank you!

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Andrea O'Ferrall's avatar

Here's something I wrote in 2022. I don't think it's what people expect to hear. https://medium.com/@andreaoferrall/how-to-have-a-climate-friendly-christmas-76a0c4dc7308

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Andrea O'Ferrall's avatar

I stopped celebrating Christmas for real 3 years ago. I'd been moving in that direction for a while. Now I give gifts to people whenever I feel the urge and I celebrate the Winter Solstice with friends. I've always looked at the frenzy with puzzlement.

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