Tuesday, August 3, 2021

An existential coincidence

This article sheds light on current events  

Strangely, in what seems a bizarre coincidence, Nordhaus was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize on the very same October day that the IPCC published its latest report on climate change. The report is the United Nations’ most urgent yet: It calls for the world to cut emissions in half by 2030, and get to net zero by the middle of the century. While Nordhaus has spent most of the past four decades calling for gradualism to preserve the conditions for economic growth, the IPCC calls for radical and immediate action in order to preserve the conditions for life. Growth versus life. The conflict between economics and science has never been clearer.

My herculean task.  To explain the hopeless of a myriad of issues of great complexity in simple language to people I love, who care but who are overwhelmed, whose well being is threatened by events and processes that cannot see... In some cases but design, by subterfuge.  

My forebears' choices were constrained by... Some economic... That were not, or at best were poorly understood.  Meanwhile, in the wings, actors were jostling for their attention, distractions where everywhere, I don't think any of them were aware of the likely consequences of their way of life. At least not at a meaningful level.  Voices of those who saw them were muted or drowned out in the cacaphony of the marketplace.  Profit was worshipped.