Why Is This Man Smiling?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.26.07
Nordhaus and Shellenberger say that people tune out from doom and gloom messages, which is why climate change is so low on most people's agendas. And nobody is doomier and gloomier than James Lovelock, who writes that "Our future, is like that of the passengers on a small pleasure boat sailing quietly above the Niagara Falls, not knowing that the engines are about to fail." He also doesn't think much of our puny efforts to do anything about it- "Green," he tells Jeff Goodell of Rolling Stone, only half-joking, "is the colour of mold and corruption."
From the Rolling Stone article:
In Lovelock's view, modest cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions won't help us -- it's too late to stop global warming by swapping our SUVs for hybrids. What about capturing carbon-dioxide pollution from coal plants and pumping it underground? "We can't possibly bury enough to make any difference." Biofuels? "A monumentally stupid idea." Renewables? "Nice, but won't make a dent." To Lovelock, the whole idea of sustainable development is wrongheaded: "We should be thinking about sustainable retreat."
Retreat, in his view, means it's time to start talking about changing where we live and how we get our food; about making plans for the migration of millions of people from low-lying regions like Bangladesh into Europe; about admitting that New Orleans is a goner and moving the people to cities better positioned for the future. Most of all, he says, it's about everybody "absolutely doing their utmost to sustain civilization, so that it doesn't degenerate into Dark Ages, with warlords running things, which is a real danger. We could lose everything that way."
Perfect scary reading for Halloween at ::Rolling Stone
over thousand years,human being survive from the ancient stone age until now,moreover become more stronge than before,the facts show people can solve the emerging problems in the exploration of the civilization,although sometime it's difficult and even step-backward,then in the end overcomed them after all.the human will also follow this way to continue the exploring booming civilization belonging to the human.
Humanity at large might survive, but it sure sucks if your generation is one that gets stuck in a Dark Age. So why not try to prevent it?
The truth hurts.
However, we still need to make the small, symbolic efforts because that is the first step towards people being able to understand our situation. If we can't sell sacrifice now, we will never be able to sell survival.
Like a child letting go of hedonistic impulse in order to learn a good work ethic, our species must learn to detach from impulses like multiple children, private space, and mobility to learn a humanity-building ethic.