A short take on climate change
Posted on: 10/9/2021
“Let’s create a world in which we want our children to grow up,” entrepreneurs in the 20th century said. So they go and create companies across borders, highrises taller than any tree, cities larger than forests, and sums worth more than any mountain.
“Oh no!” the scientists say, “because of our lifestyle, climate change is going to destroy all biodiversity.”
The entrepreneurs then reply, “Nonsense, what we’re doing is great. You are fake news.”
It’s now the 21st century. Temperatures are rising higher than ever. Extinction among species is rising a thousand-fold.
“I told you all so,” say the scientists again.
“We did what was necessary at the time. Look, I don’t want to lose my money, so can you scientists please shut up?”
“No. We really need to fix this problem now.”
“Too bad. We have the money, and we have the power.”
This blunt dialogue is a rough generalization of the problem facing the generation today: climate change and its detriments. People have been disregarding this warning for nearly a century. The doomsday clock is ticking dangerously close. Why is it that when there is a problem, humans often wait until later to fix it? It’s now our problem, and we weren’t even alive to see the problem’s birth. How is it fair to us that we have to clean up our predecessor’s damage? Why isn’t world-wide action happening yet? Our grandparents treat us like fresh mops, ready to suck their spills.
The problem is this: we treat future generations like they don’t exist, as past generations have done to us, but why is that so? Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard, argues that the human brain evolved to respond to immediate threats rather than long-term threats. Humans have developed the ability to “treat the future as if it were the present,” like planning a vacation or setting up life insurance. We aren’t great at detecting the danger of climate change though, because we know the consequences will come in ensuing decades; it doesn’t feel like our problem.
Even if Gilbert’s claim is scientifically true, it doesn’t mean we can’t make the conscious decision to change as a result of our views on climate change, avoiding the extinction of biodiversity and our impending doom. The amazing thing about the brain is that we can make choices. The fault lies within ourselves. Our predecessors owe it to us, and we owe it to our descendants, to fix the problem. This trait, identified by Gilbert, can apply not only to climate change, but also to many troubling issues that may last decades or longer. If we believe in a truly egalitarian society, then it is our job to own up to our mistakes and our future mistakes and fix them.
So, let’s create a world in which we want our children (to the nth power) to grow up.
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