Climate Minute: I can’t believe I still have to work during a mass-extinction event

Andrew Gaertner
1 min readNov 25, 2022
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

Every day we get more news that we are well into the Anthropocene, and climate change is the biggest factor in this human-caused mass-extinction event.

I still go to work and stop at the gas station for a hot dog with my unleaded. I still book a flight to see friends and binge-watch tv shows. I still worry about my weight and shop online for merino wool t-shirts.

The reality of mass extinction and climate catastrophe has hit me and filled me with dread, but I don’t know what to do with it. The existential crisis facing the planet has to share space in my head with all my other personal distress.

What if we all decided to stop our normal lives and instead focus on altering society so we stop harming the planet?

Note: this climate minute was inspired by a meme I saw on Facebook. Credit to the anonymous creator.

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Andrew Gaertner

To live in a world of peace and justice we must imagine it first. For this, we need artists and writers. I write to reach for the edges of what is possible.