Did it work? Has someone googled
“cute kittens” and wound up at my blog?
Didn’t think so.
Pity. I was planning on
explaining how to save the world today. It was the least I could do after my
last post. You see, part of what feeds my depression is a sense of
powerlessness in the face of what will be the defining challenge of our time.
Can we tackle climate change before it leads to civilization-disrupting chaos?
I’d be worried that you’ll think
I’m a real nutter, but since no-one’s listening, I’m safe. (As long as I don’t
choke on my tablets.)
What really bugs me and sends my
brain into a tailspin is that, despite our individual - and at times communal –
brilliance, we can be incredibly collectively stupid.
Don’t get my drift?
Humans have evolved past the
point where we were able to understand the seasons and develop the tools to
survive them. We learned to grow extra food then store it for the lean times.
Then in our leisure times we developed increasingly complex technologies that
have enabled us to believe that we can live independent of our climate.
Strawberries all year round come at a price.
Our activity has changed our
planet. Climate change is being felt in the form of increasingly frequent
extreme weather events. The residents of Vanuatu are among the most recent to
feel the effect. We know it is happening. Our scientists can not only tell us
why, they can also tell us what to do. We have the technology!
Yet change for the better is slow
coming – it may be too slow to prevent us reaching a tipping point where our
efforts will make no difference.
Still people resist change.
Climate change deniers continue
to muddy the water, and corporations which depend on destructive processes to
create their profits, drag their feet. And the media, puppet of industry,
continues to tell us that consumption is good.
And our climate continues to
deteriorate.
See what I mean. Stupid. Really dumb.
If we were in a boat that was
leaking we’d be bailing like mad. Instead we seem to be knocking more holes in
the bottom. And people seem to think that doing next to nothing about this
critical issue is acceptable.
What do I think we should do? I’ll
save that for the next post and end with a quote from Philip K. Dick.
“Reality is that which, when you
stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
