Peter GleickYou know that metaphor about how a frog in a pot on the stove doesn't know it's heating up and doesn't jump out until it's too late?
The pot has started boiling.
Avocado Toast@petergleick this still works as a metaphor, but in reality the frogs jump out.
So we're less adaptive to subtle environmental changes than frogs.
echo (formerly eve) 👾🏳️⚧️@avocado_toast @petergleick personally I don't engage in humanity self-hate. We also jump out of the pot of boiling water. The climate crisis is just a bit more complicated to jump out of.
Like yeah, you can moan about how humans suck and ignore the problems. But it is, objectively, a very difficult problem. I don't know if the negativity accomplishes anything.
@akkavodol @petergleick do we? Or are we more like the frogs in this cartoon?
@avocado_toast @petergleick we're not. By proportion a significant fraction of humans agree that climate change is a problem. Certainly not 2 to 1 of climate deniers.
Modify the drawing to make the edges of the pot 1 meter tall, requiring significant infrastructure work to get out of, and make the majority of frogs say "the pot is boiling but I don't know what to do about it". That'll be more accurate.
https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/09/16/global-climate-change-poll
@akkavodol @petergleick what to do about it is already known: burn less crap, consume less, travel less, etc...but it's not happening at all. Year over year we're actually doing more of all of these things.
There also may be fewer climate change deniers than people who acknowledge the science, but the reach of climate deniers and their control over governmental policy is more than enough to make up for their lack of majority support.
@avocado_toast @petergleick It's not that simple.
If today, right now, we were to turn the oil production down to *no more climate change* level, the consequences would be disastrous. Our industry would collapse. We would no longer be producing enough food, electricity, medicine... for a large fraction of humanity. There would be famines. Wars.
The question is how do we slow climate change without doing more damage than climate change. It's not at all easy.
@akkavodol @petergleick we're not turning it down AT ALL. Carbon emissions rise year over year.
@avocado_toast @petergleick Yes, because the population is rising and the living conditions of people in third world countries is steadily improving.
Slowing climate change by pushing one third of the world back to the level of poverty they were in 50 years ago would be fairly easy.
@akkavodol @petergleick there's always gonna be a reason to burn more and produce more. A coal miner is always going to want to burn more coal. A oil tycoon is always going to want to produce more oil. Ultimately, the motivations don't matter and the results speak for themselves.