Can a Climate Cafe Help You Deal with Your Feelings About the Weather?

Sure, why not

Let’s say you’re talking to somebody you don’t know very well, or somebody you know so well that you’ve run out of things to say. Where does the discussion usually go?

That’s right: the weather! It’s a safe topic because everybody experiences it, it’s different from one day to the next, and it’s pretty easy to agree on it.

“Nice day, huh?”
“Yep.”

“Hot enough for ya?”
“You can say that again!”

“Weatherman said rain tomorrow.”
“Well, you know how often he gets it right.”

Etc.

But did you know that talking about the weather can actually help save the planet? Get thee to a climate cafe!

Lola Fadulu and Emily Schmall, NYT:

In a small room in Lower Manhattan, a group of eight New Yorkers sat in a circle sharing kombucha and their climate fears against the background of pattering rain and wailing sirens.

In Champaign, Ill., a psychotherapist facilitating a meeting for other therapists held up a branch of goldenrod, asking the half-dozen participants online to consider their connection to nature.

And in Kansas City, Mo., a nonprofit that runs a weekly discussion on Zoom began its session with a spiritual reading and a guided meditation before breaking into groups to discuss topics like the ethics of childbearing amid a fast-rising global population and concerns of resource scarcity.

All were examples of a new grass-roots movement called climate cafes. These in-person and online groups are places for people to discuss their grief, fears, anxiety and other emotions about the climate crisis.

Isn’t that great? Stupid people have been bombarded with so much of this miserable nonsense that they’re now huddling together in coffee houses for comfort. They’re taking shelter from a storm that isn’t really there.

This sort of “news” story is a good example of how the news launders their propaganda. First they scare everybody with ridiculous stories about the weather killing us all.

There’s always a catastrophe just around the corner. We’re always 12 years away from the end. I’m not sure why it’s always 12 years, but that’s their usual timeframe. Then, when 12 years pass and the world still hasn’t ended, the calendar is reset.

Somehow, this keeps working. It keeps everybody in a perpetual state of crisis, which keeps Al Gore’s wallet as fat as he is.

And of course, when these credulous rubes believe it, their irrational fears are used by unscrupulous journos as further propaganda. That’s what we see the NYT doing here.

Hey, it could be worse. At least these idiots are staying off the street. They’re not blocking traffic or throwing soup on paintings or any of that crap. They’re just chatting among themselves about things that aren’t happening and never will.

Like a book club. Except even dumber.

I recommend reading that whole story. It’s a hoot. My favorite detail:

Since June 2023, Olivia Ferraro, 24, who works in finance, has hosted more than 20 intimate climate cafes in New York City that have had between five and 20 attendees… On a recent drizzly, unseasonably warm January evening — the temperature was 51 degrees and the high was 56 degrees — Ms. Ferraro prepped for her meeting.

That little weather report really sets the tone, doesn’t it? It was 56 degrees in NYC in January, and they all knew they would soon die.

The sky is always falling, and it’ll land any day now.

Confirmation bias, a press that doesn’t care about facts, and the human desire to feel important. It’s your best entertainment value!

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