That Lonely Feeling
This post is based on the blog That Lonely Feeling.
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The post When the History Books Are Written started with the following statements.
When historians in future generations look back on the early twenty-first century they are likely to summarize the events of our time as follows.
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Theirs was a time of extraordinary communications technology. Anyone with anything to say could use social media, web sites, blogs and YouTube to communicate their message.
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The most important message in those days was that the climate is changing rapidly and drastically. The scientists accurately predicted catastrophes — including famine, wars and refugee crises.
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No one listened. Only a tiny, tiny minority even read the scientists’ reports. In spite of all the whiz-bang technology there was an almost total absence of communication — the scientists issued their reports, the people and governments of that time went about their business as normal. The few people who even had an interest treated climate change as just one problem among many.
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What went wrong? How could communications have failed so totally?
The following day an article in the Guardian newspaper had a similar message. The article’s title was Climate scientists are desperate: we’re crying, begging and getting arrested. The author of the article, Peter Kalmus, who was arrested during a demonstration, writes,
I hate being the Cassandra. I’d rather just be with my family and do science. But I feel morally compelled to sound the alarm.
I’m a climate scientist and a desperate father. How can I plead any harder? What will it take? What can my colleagues and I do to stop this catastrophe unfolding now all around us with such excruciating clarity?
The article also quotes the – United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres
Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals, but the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels.”