Climate Doomers and Doomism: How Are They Affecting People and the Environment?

Climate doomism is a notion that an individual is past the point of being able to do anything at all in terms of global warming and that humans are highly likely to turn extinct. This idea, scientists say, is wrong, although the argument has turned viral online.

For instance, a BBC News report specified that TikTok user Charles McBryde is seen on a video he uploaded on the said social media platform walking down the street with a Jurassic Park cap on.

In the video, seemingly talking to the video-sharing app, McBryde said, "Okay, TikTok, I need your help." The 27-year-old TikToker lives in California. His unconventional videos about news, politics, and history have earned him over 150,000 followers.

In October 2021, he recorded a video confessing to being a "climate doomer." Since around 2019, McBryde said he has believed that "little to nothing" can be done to "actually reverse climate change on a global scale."

A Climate Doomer's Plea

As a climate doomer, McBryde admitted he feels overwhelmed, anxious and depressed about global warming, although he followed up those feelings with a plea.

In his post online, he said he's calling on the scientists and activists of TikTok to give him hope. He also told them to convince him that there is something out there worth fighting for and that in the end, victory can be achieved over this, even if it is just temporary.

After she watched McBryde's video, Alaina Wood, a sustainability scientist based in Tennessee, posted a reply, explaining in simple words why he was wrong.

@thegarbagequeen Why #climatedoom ♬ original sound - Alaina Wood

She makes it a habit of challenging climate doomism, a mission she has been committed to with a sense of urgency. In her post, she said, people give up on activism because they cannot handle it anymore. Doomism, she added, eventually results in climate inaction, the opposite of what many people want.

'Not' the End of the World

According to Dr. Friederike Otto, a climate scientist, who has been working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations, he does not think "it's helpful to pretend that climate change" will result in the extinction of humans.

In its latest report, the IPCC presented a detailed plan that it believes could help the world avoid the worst effects of increasing temperatures.

A similar True Viral News specified that the said plan involves "rapid, deep and immediate" cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, which trap the sun's heat and make the planet hotter.

A senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Dr. Otto, said there is no denying that there are big global changes and that some are not reversible.

He emphasized, though, that the world is going to end, although there is a need for people to adapt, and "we have to stop emitting."

Where and When Doomism Becomes Dangerous

A related Medium report said it is normal to be angry, fearful, depressed, and anxious about climate change.

However, it turns dangerous when such emotions pull further into a "sea of despair" from people who lose all hope for a better future, like what's happening to climate doomers.

Michael Mann, a climatologist, said good people fall victim to doomism. He added he does, too. Sometimes, it can be enabling and empowering as long as one doesn't get stuck there.

It's up to other people to help guarantee that experience can be cathartic, Mann continued explaining. He also said it is not only dangerous for people in terms of their mental health, but it is also dangerous for many in terms of their mental health, although it is dangerous for the people as well, as a society, if enough of them get trapped in this sea of despair.

Related information about climate doomism is shown on Physical Attraction Podcast's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Climate Change in Science Times.