Tuesday, October 4th, 2016
Stephan: Day after day in the science press I see more and more papers in which scientists speak with growing urgency and alarm about the changes in the environment. And yet most Americans rarely speak of it.
A few days ago I went to a political event at the house of a couple with whom my wife and I are friends, and a woman with whom I am slightly acquainted stood next to me at the excellent table of finger foods. After some small talk she said to me, "Stephan, do you have to put all those negative climate stories in SR? I don't like to put negativity in my mind so I'm sorry but I just don't read you as often anymore." I had no doubt she meant her comments as well-meant counsel. I made a polite response and we were interrupted by someone else.
But her words have stayed with me, and today I read this, and realized others share my views. We are in a kind of massive cultural denial; the only way it is going to end is if each of us start talking. I suggest you make a point of bringing climate change into focus in conversation with friends and family spoken or written at least once a day. That is how Gay became LGBT.
Updated, 2:01 p.m. | At a local art gallery in 2010, amid the loud chatter over wine and cheese, I heard a weird metronomic sound over toward one wall. I wandered over to find a hammer set to tap relentlessly on a sheet of glass, behind which were these words in red letters: “BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF EMERGENCY.”
Tap…. Tap…. Tap….
The chatter and laughter continued unabated.
Long-time readers here may recall what the artist, John Allen, said when I asked him about it. He explained that he had originally set the piece up in his home to test whether it could both get under one’s skin and also fade into the background.
The sculpture came to mind again this week when Anthony Leiserowitz, a Yale University researcher leading a longstanding effort to understand attitudes on global warming, distributed a note asking, “Is There a Climate ‘Spiral of Silence’ in America?” He summarized a fresh analysis by a team at Yale and George Mason University showing that while most Americans say they are somewhat or very interested in global warming, a bigger majority […]
LGBT is clumsy. Living in San Francisco in a family with lesbians and often encountering gay men in the work place, Gay is OK.
Some of the problem comes from changing the brand from “Global Warming” to “Climate Change.” Climate changes. Sometimes ice age, sometimes tropical. So what? Why did that brand change happen? Some people say it’s because warming stopped years ago. And yet a lot of the propaganda talks about warming.
The faster tempo of ever more hysterical warnings is having the opposite effect of what the sources of the propaganda are expecting. There was always a problem because the warming people were talking about things that might happen 30, 40, 100 years in the future. People are more interested in things that are happening now right in front of them.
Personally I’m more worried about the possibility of a cool phase due to the grand solar minimum that could decimate humanity by famine, disease, and war. I recommend following Adapt2030 on youtube.
I think about climate change a lot more than I talk about it, because many of my friends don’t want to know. I have a friend whose sister lives on a barrier island near Pensacola, Florida. During one of the really bad storms, the entire island was just washed away. Then, the Federal Government sweetly rebuilt the island and the houses. How nice for these well-to-do folks living on their own island.
I sent an article to him to pass on to his sister, so that she might begin thinking of moving now, before things get dire. I haven’t heard anything from him since. Nothing. Oh well. I tried.
There is another thing about the way climate change is reported. I always read about how things are going to be really bad by 2100. Well, that is simply not going to get the attention of lots of people. First, they resist change of any kind, then they are thinking 2100 is a far into the future (I guess their children and grandchildren don’t enter the thought processes).
The thing that I have been thinking is that there are going to be two primary issues coming up really soon. First, there are already climate refugees, largely unreported by the MSM. I have read where a city in Florida is planning to build a big wall between the city and the ocean. I can just see how much those citizens will love their view of a big wall.
Then, there is the issue of population growth. We are continuing to add people to the earth, just as resources are dwindling. The effects of climate change aren’t going to be waiting in the wings and just slap us in the face on January 1, 2100. There will be ever accelerating changes that will drive people inland every year from now until the maximum effects are felt. When I sees some of the maps of the predicted inundations, it’s really frightening. Where are those millions of people gonig to go?
For me, being involved in counteracting the effects of climate change is my way of expressing gratitude. As humans living on Planet Earth, each and everyday we encounter blessings big and small, the things that keep us alive to what inspires us. I’ve come to a place emotionally where I see this era, this age as The Time of Hearts Breaking Open. There’s no getting around what’s happening. And out of fear and sadness, hearts are breaking. But by being mindful daily of what is happening, recognizing and accepting those emotions helps me ease the tension. From there I find the space to go forward. A heart broken open has room for more love, more gratitude..and the energy to take action, the inspiration that spurs creativity.
Stephen, I share your concern about climate change, and I wonder why you consistently ignore the number one source greenhouse gasses, eating animals. According to a 2010 Worldwatch report as much as 51% of greenhouse gasses come from animal farming. That includes land lost to deforestation. Even the 2006 UN report puts the number at 18%, which is higher than transportation. Research led by Oxford Martin School finds widespread adoption of vegetarian diet would cut food-related emissions by 63%. Make the 70% for a vegan diet.
Of course such a dietary change would also greatly lower heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. It’s great to rail against big pharma and energy companies, I’m with you on that, however, there’s also the personal responsibility part that you seem to mostly ignore.
I have done endless stories about this. Look in the SR archives.
I have been following earth changes/climate change stories/research since the mid-80s. There are many prophecies from all sorts about changes on our planet that will profoundly affect human existence. Some of them talked about the greed, complacency and disbelief that life could not continue as it always has done, up one day done the next-same ole, same ole. Mr. Hovland would seem to subscribe to this view. I am discouraged by this willful ignorance/blindness because we are past the tipping point and need to prepare for what will be the surprising rapid ocean rise, more intense rain, more intense heat-particularly localized extreme temps, death of the oceans, large animal die-off…. The world is set to become more and more chaotic and more crazy humans doing more crazy destructive acts–Syria, our elections campaigns. I think that nothing will change public interest or opinion until near coastal real estate values plunge when it becomes very obvious that sea level rise is real and will continue many miles inland not just during storms. I’m betting 5-10 year time frame. If you think not look at the banks, insurance industry and the military for ongoing reports of concern. So you don’t believe the climate science (97%) then believe those whose profits count on the long-term view.