Climate of Private Obsession

I spent much of the winter thinking and writing about the Climate Crisis. I organized with climate activists who all agreed it was a major problem. Then Spring came like flicking on a light switch and I dropped back into my body to work like a horse on a friend's farm. Suddenly, I'm back in a world where people don't know or aren't concerned about the Climate Crisis.

It's a relief. Who wants to always be thinking about 'The End of the World'? Not me. I want to think about Girlwalk videos, Further shows at SPAC and growing garlic. Caring about Climate feels like a private madness, a pet peeve, a dark private vision of planet death, especially when surround by people who are blithely unconcerned.

On April 7th, I attended a meeting for the State of Vermont's effort to create a Comprehensive Energy Plan. I was surprised to find very little talk of the Climate Crisis. It was an energy conversation that could have happened in another era on another planet. And these were smart gov't people.

So, clearly, the Climate Movement is still in the movement-building phase of "raising awareness" and "creating mass consciousness" and "making sure the public knows there is a problem".

The Climate Movement hasn't achieved mass consciousness because the science is so complicated that it's easy to refute. Like 5th graders, Climate Deniers have just said "Nah-uunuhh" and Climate Scientists are forced to mumble back "No really, arctic ice samples gives us a very clear record of the relationship between carbon in the atmosphere and temperature. More carbon, more temperature." Climate Deniers say "Oh, yeah?!!" And around it goes, a stuck debate between PhDs and tweens about the proper atmospheric composition if we want to preserve life on earth as we know it.

The Climate Movement must get better at explaining the science. It's not enough that Bill McKibben and James Hansen understand the mechanics of the problem. We need 8th graders who can explain the carbon/temperature connection to their Senators. Someday I’d like to make videos of citizens explaining the Climate Crisis to legislators.

It took me about two years to eat, digest and understand the Climate Science. In total, it's complicated: planetary chemistry, geological records. But in summary, it's not too complicated: more soot in the sky, more heat held in by the greenhouse effect. We need to get millions more people understanding the Climate Science so that creating a Zero-Carbon society becomes a priority.

The Climate Crisis has a time-lag. The Biggest Effects are still far-off in the future. The planet is taking some time to adjust to the new atmospheric composition of (currently) 390 PPM (parts per million) carbon. Already we are experiencing big changes, but the changes haven't deeply settled in. If it was 390 PPM for 100 years, we'd probably have no ice-caps. In Cancun, the last time it was two degrees warmer, the sea level was two feet higher. The changes are happening now in miniature, but in a few years, they'll flesh out. Already we are seeing big changes: hottest year on record, record snowfalls and rainfalls, Pakistani floods and Russian fires. I mean, damn, we're in the middle of it now.

So, why the indolent indifference, people? What is it going to take to get on with the business end of creating a carbon-neutral society?

Probably more folks like Tim.

The story of Tim DeChristopher is encouraging because he has challenged the prevailing societal indolence with Gandhi-like ethical sturdiness. He punked an illegal Bush-era sell-off of public land to oil companies and effectively blocked the auction. Follow the story of this brave prankster Earth Protector at bidder70.org. We need more people able to act on what their heart's know to be true.

May humanity bravely face the Truth and save the sky, the Earth and ourselves.