hoping to be more cheerful the next time

It would be perfectly understandable if you are not.

Am I correct in assuming this board is populated by elderly/retired folks who are deteriorating at varying levels of comfort? My cheer quotient is increased by family and(hopefully) having worked and saved hard enough to make it "to the finish line." It's decreased by navigating a route to the finish line while avoid the increasing strife that fills the headlines. Nietzsche, Plato, religious fairy tales have little to no bearing on the final third quarter of the game. 0-30, 30-60, 60-90, 90-120.

it's not necessarily hopeless, but is probably going to be messily unhappy for some time.

I just got the monthly bill from SoCalGas (heating, water heating, cooking). It went from about $100 in winter months to $350.00 ! Our neighbor was billed just over $400. for their 1500' home.

On the one hand.... I can handle it.

On the other hand, being a bit more introspective, I'm thinking of the fallout of this huge change on 40,000,000 people in California; how expensive energy is going to increasingly impact hundreds of millions who live on a shoestring and cannot 'handle it.'

And then there are the Ukranians who have no heat at all as the richest folks wind up their posh Davos retreat, climb aboard their private jets and zoom off to their Caribbean winter estates?.

How does mankind process the pain as climate change is addressed?

My daily gripe: the water is brown from storm runoff and sewage spills into the bay., so surfing is out.. hiking is in.