It is shocking to realize that, as things stand today, very little we do as a global civilization in terms of energy use would be different if nobody had ever uttered the words “global warming” or “climate change”. It’s like voting – one vote doesn’t make much difference, but a lot of votes does. The more people who take these steps, the sooner the day will come when significant, organized efforts by the government will have at least some impact on addressing the problem. There isn’t much more that the average person can do other than to take steps to reduce one’s own carbon footprint, to lobby political decision-makers, and to keep the subject front and center in conversations with others. While the population is not entirely oblivious to the threat, it remains sufficiently abstract to have little impact on daily lives. Considering the fact that such a large swath of our population still refuses to be vaccinated against COVID because, as some have pointed out “it isn’t deadly enough”, it is unsurprising that the devastating impact of global warming, which is now inevitable, doesn’t much move the concern needle. This is because the accumulating damage is distributed worldwide, and much of it is in areas that we don’t personally see – the oceans, the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the tropics.Ĭloser to home we do see more frequent and damaging storms and wildfires, but, while worrisome, they have not been enough to galvanize a popular response. The reason we do not accord it the same level of concern is that it does not seem as pressing or immediate because our lives go on pretty much as they have always done despite the ever-increasing concentration of this invisible, odorless gas. We should be, but these problems pale in comparison to the threat posed by the continuing accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are consumed by the threat to our democracy posed by a Republican party gone power-hungry and authoritarian, and by the threat of nuclear war posed by Russia’s version of Manifest Destiny that envisions a reconstituted USSR. Yeats, The Second Coming Courtesy of Seen. “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.”
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