In many ways this is a nearly invisible emergency. Literally. If only…! If only instead of being nearly invisible to us CO2 and methane in our atmosphere and oceans were some striking unpleasant color, shit brown perhaps! If only we had billboards constantly monitoring current level of extinctions (20% and increasing). If only there were also billboards showing rising CO2 levels with estimations of the decades, centuries and beyond that they will stay in the atmosphere by year and amount of production. Any scientists and/or artists who would like to take this one on?
Many in our culture are living such jam-packed lives, that it’s easy to just not see anything beyond today’s To Do List. Many more of us need to slow down, at least some of the time.
We don’t want to see it. It’s too much too take in! Yet, as I will vouch, after moving through whatever our barriers are, it actually feels much better on the other side.
Guilt! How could we have let this happen? (graphs)
To think that we were so deluded that we thought our fossil-based lives were perfectly sustainable.
The media. In the name of “balance” the media has been swayed by non-climate scientists usually in the pay of the fossil fuel corporations to raise doubt about the role of fossil fuels in climate change (see Hoggan and also Klein in the book section)
The fossil fuel corporations have used exceptionally “good” marketing to paint themselves in a good light and to keep raising doubts about Climate Change (again see Hoggan and also Klein).
If we are very empathetic, it can be hard to raise the issues with issues because we don’t want to cause pain to others.
It can be hard to talk with others because this topic has become so loaded for so many people for several of the above reasons.
Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown has other valuable thoughts on this question, especially pp. 22-30.
One thought on “Why is it often so hard to recognize what’s happening?”
One thought on “Why is it often so hard to recognize what’s happening?”
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