I don't think "pleas" will work. This is an issue of cultural inflexibility. They won't even hear your carefully thought-out, rational arguments. They'll just shout out "USA! USA!"
I worked on John Kerry's campaign, canvassing upper-middle-class neighbourhoods.
I recall knocking on one door, and a red-faced man angrily opened the door, and started shouting, "ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN! ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN!"
I bit my tongue, and carefully said, "John Kerry does not support gay marriage."
But the man just kept shouting, "ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN!" until he slammed the door.
"Liberals. You need to solve climate change"
None of the crises we are experiencing have "solutions". They only have "coping strategies".
Climate change will not be "solved", by Liberals or racists or whatever. The only possible solution is to immediately abandon fossil fuel. Just look at IEA numbers to see how well *that* is going!
On the other hand, climate change may be self-solving, as fossil sunlight is near or past its peak of production. After then, nature will invoke insolvency proceedings against humanity, which will then make your refugee numbers look insanely optimistic.
James Hansen thinks we'll wind up with a few hundred thousand humans clustered around the poles some day.
Yes and. As you write about so cogently, it's not like there are solutions, where we're too late for effective fixes. So now what? Who knows, but to fish for the best we can do in a terrible situation at least get everyone taking that situation seriously and not have economic short term interests keep us on an ever more devastating path.
We need to be one caring humanity with all our energies on the best we can do, and no one is advocating for how to get to that. We need a change of zeitgeist, where economic interests take a back seat to humanitarian ones, and all my eggs are in that basket.
True Jacob. I thought about expanding it to cover more planetary boundaries, but that would have been much longer. Perhaps I will expand on that in future pieces.
"A plea to the racists"
I don't think "pleas" will work. This is an issue of cultural inflexibility. They won't even hear your carefully thought-out, rational arguments. They'll just shout out "USA! USA!"
I worked on John Kerry's campaign, canvassing upper-middle-class neighbourhoods.
I recall knocking on one door, and a red-faced man angrily opened the door, and started shouting, "ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN! ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN!"
I bit my tongue, and carefully said, "John Kerry does not support gay marriage."
But the man just kept shouting, "ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN!" until he slammed the door.
"Liberals. You need to solve climate change"
None of the crises we are experiencing have "solutions". They only have "coping strategies".
Climate change will not be "solved", by Liberals or racists or whatever. The only possible solution is to immediately abandon fossil fuel. Just look at IEA numbers to see how well *that* is going!
On the other hand, climate change may be self-solving, as fossil sunlight is near or past its peak of production. After then, nature will invoke insolvency proceedings against humanity, which will then make your refugee numbers look insanely optimistic.
James Hansen thinks we'll wind up with a few hundred thousand humans clustered around the poles some day.
Well-spoken reality, Matt. This is the kind of harsh truth that should be part of the national conversation at the highest levels of leadership.
Yes and. As you write about so cogently, it's not like there are solutions, where we're too late for effective fixes. So now what? Who knows, but to fish for the best we can do in a terrible situation at least get everyone taking that situation seriously and not have economic short term interests keep us on an ever more devastating path.
We need to be one caring humanity with all our energies on the best we can do, and no one is advocating for how to get to that. We need a change of zeitgeist, where economic interests take a back seat to humanitarian ones, and all my eggs are in that basket.
and the last thing i'm bothered about it my national identity.
I think we can dispense with 'unless we tackle climate change and fast'- we're well passed that. There will be no tackling.
True Jacob. I thought about expanding it to cover more planetary boundaries, but that would have been much longer. Perhaps I will expand on that in future pieces.