Terrifying/Inspiring Thought of the Week
Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) is a principle found in ecology that describes how many ecological systems, such as nature conservation, water quality levels, and restoration of wildlife habitats, are destroyed over time. SBS is the gradual change in the accepted norms for the condition of the natural environment due to a lack of human experience, memory, and/or knowledge of its past condition. It is perpetuated when each new generation perceives the environmental conditions in which they grew up as ‘normal’.
SBS also means that future generations will think that out-of-control climate change is normal, that coastal flooding and erosion are normal, that widespread famine is normal, that massive migration like the world has never seen … is normal, that the destruction of our natural world for profit is normal.
Well, that last one already is normalized.
I was born in 1961. By the time I was 15 I could see none of this destruction for profit was healthy. "Normal," yes, healthy no. There will always be deniers, however I suspect the speed of devastation we are on the precipice of will make most aware. SBS as you point out is a generational phenomenon. The destruction we are about to experience will be carry a level of undeniability that can't be ignored, experiences in the same generation. This is why Trump and friends are destroying critical agencies like NOAA, to submerge critical science and statistics. The insurance industry won't be fooled, however. The truth of $100bn disasters will come out. The resulting poverty, unnecessary deaths and diminished lives of us all will be stark truth.
Thank you for pointing this out. I will try and find stuff I take for granted due to SBS.