Change Blindness—Part 2

There are several reasons why we humans are not taking action to do something to deal with the climate crisis. One reason is the denial on the part of those who live lavishly and refuse to reduce their consumption. A second is the interests of energy corporations to keep their profits coming in. A third is the lack of will of political leaders to take radical action, especially since many of them are beholden to those wealthy business interests. A fourth is the reluctance of most of humanity to admit that its economic belief system—capitalism—is causing the environment to degrade, and must be fundamentally transformed.

But there's yet another reason why we cling to our old ideas—a reason rather similar to why Darwin faced hostility, over 150 years ago: The human species has known nothing but a tranquil environment for some 12,000 years now. It began long before recorded history, and hence there is no documentation of the ice ages and droughts that occurred for hundreds of thousands, even millions, of years prior to that—a span of time way beyond that of human memory. 

The closest traumatic climate event in human prehistory is the Biblical story of Noah's flood. But when that was over, didn't God promise a new and pleasant day? (The fact that several other ancient cultures had similar flood stories suggests that such a cataclysmic event many indeed have happened.)

Americans especially are prone to cultural amnesia. We tend to forget the hard lessons of even a few decades ago, so we repeat the mistakes of history and seem inclined to view recent climate stability as enduring. It's much easier to bury one's head in the stable sand of today, rather than face the uncertainty of impending and erratic change.

What I find tragic is that many of those who cling to the idea of an unchanging world respond to the news of climate change by targeting the scientists who bring the bad news. Even more disturbing is that the groups who have led the opposition to the message of global warming are most often those who are the major cause of climate change. Energy corporations—who have become rich and powerful because of their sanctioned exploitation of fossil fuels—have lied and obfuscated the issue.

Thus many people lurch into the future—blissfully ignorant of the hard times ahead; which will bring climate difficulties way beyond what our species has ever encountered. We are half asleep—lulled by the present mild climate. It's as if we are waddling forward, into the times ahead, overweight, undernourished, and indifferently unaware. We appear to be blind to the changes about to happen.