The newest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report released in late February paints a bleak picture of the global and local effects of climate change in coming decades, and of the challenges that governments and citizens face as they work to address the problems that will arise due to human induced global warming.
Now we are faced with the question how can we overcome human irrationality on a world scale? As you already point out, the rational facts are already on the table. But will humanity be able to pass a small valley in the moral landscape in order to arrive at a new peak that is compatible with our future climate?
Most of those who aren’t very wealthy tell themselves that it’s all too slow to matter to them.
Most of the very wealthy tell themselves that they’ll build mansions on higher ground.
Some of the wealthy don’t even think *that* because they’re too busy trying to ensure that they’ll be the richest corpse in the cemetery.
The politicians (wealthy or not) are too busy trying to ensure that they’ll win the next election, by not upsetting any of the above by doing something effective but inconvenient to their electorate.
The few who think that climate change matters enough to change our species’ plans (e.g., me), having considered the above are too pessimistic to believe that it’s worth campaigning.
It’s looking like intelligence is not a good strategy for species longevity. I suspect that the great filter is ahead.
Now we are faced with the question how can we overcome human irrationality on a world scale? As you already point out, the rational facts are already on the table. But will humanity be able to pass a small valley in the moral landscape in order to arrive at a new peak that is compatible with our future climate?
Most of those who aren’t very wealthy tell themselves that it’s all too slow to matter to them.
Most of the very wealthy tell themselves that they’ll build mansions on higher ground.
Some of the wealthy don’t even think *that* because they’re too busy trying to ensure that they’ll be the richest corpse in the cemetery.
The politicians (wealthy or not) are too busy trying to ensure that they’ll win the next election, by not upsetting any of the above by doing something effective but inconvenient to their electorate.
The few who think that climate change matters enough to change our species’ plans (e.g., me), having considered the above are too pessimistic to believe that it’s worth campaigning.
It’s looking like intelligence is not a good strategy for species longevity. I suspect that the great filter is ahead.