Climate Change And The Emperor’s New Clothes

Why We Keep Ignoring Even the Most Dire Climate Change Warnings

Jeffrey Kluger, October 8, 2018 (Time Magazine)

“…Humans have always been an exceedingly risk-averse species—which is how we came to survive…[So when it comes to the loss of the entire planet, well, we ought to take action. And yet we don’t…[In the wake of an announcement by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that a] distant future of an Earth best by floods, droughts, wildfires and typhoons isn’t distant anymore, but as little as 12 years away…the public reaction—again, as always—has been meh…[because] climate change checks almost every one of our ignore-the-problem boxes…[It lacks the absolutely critical component—the “me” component…

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Immediate concerns will always trump eventual concerns—which is one more trick of species survival…We establish that kind of distance from risk not just temporally but geographically and culturally…Finally, there’s a sense of futility…[Climate change is] arguably the biggest of all problems—and that makes individual action seem awfully pointless…Of course, every great human enterprise has called on people not to do things they want to do or to do things they don’t—paying taxes, volunteering for military service…[I]t has helped ensure the success of the larger human project and the survival of the next generations…[If we don’t act on climate change,] we’re going to owe those generations an explanation—and an apology.” click here for more

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