If we instinctually felt how dire this is, akin to the imminent danger of, like, a lion circling our huts, maybe we would rise up and do something.
But we didn’t evolve to feel a true sense of urgency about abstract dangers that will happen in 30-100 years.
We know we are fucked beyond belief. We know billions will die. We know 90%+ of the planet’s species will go extinct. We know we will live to see a barren wasteland of populated by suffering. Intellectually we know the horrors. Yet it feels more urgent to go to work and pay the bills and do our day to day things.
Imagine if we felt the urgency to a point where we walked out of our jobs and did what we needed to do to force the change. Force companies to shut down. Ground all airplanes and dismantle cargo ships. Wrest control from the rich. Shut down coal plants. Etc.
And then there’s the greedy bastards… Who would rather do anything to make money now than deal with anything tomorrow or anything that might hurt all of us.
I believe most of us have accepted that we have already passed all the tipping points and at this point We’re fighting for damage control
Failing at damage control, I would say.
If we instinctually felt how dire this is, akin to the imminent danger of, like, a lion circling our huts, maybe we would rise up and do something.
But we didn’t evolve to feel a true sense of urgency about abstract dangers that will happen in 30-100 years.
We know we are fucked beyond belief. We know billions will die. We know 90%+ of the planet’s species will go extinct. We know we will live to see a barren wasteland of populated by suffering. Intellectually we know the horrors. Yet it feels more urgent to go to work and pay the bills and do our day to day things.
Imagine if we felt the urgency to a point where we walked out of our jobs and did what we needed to do to force the change. Force companies to shut down. Ground all airplanes and dismantle cargo ships. Wrest control from the rich. Shut down coal plants. Etc.
And then there’s the greedy bastards… Who would rather do anything to make money now than deal with anything tomorrow or anything that might hurt all of us.
That’s what I was thinking. Once the permafrost thaw becomes self perpetuating, there’s no going back.
And seeing as the Antarctic and Arctic are warming about 4x as fast as the rest of the world, I’d say we’re pretty close now.
I feel it basically started in the 20teens and is underway now.
According to this it started in the 60’s … in Russia at least.
After the tipping points, there is no damage control.
And pushing the damage control to other people.