Humans have demonstrated a seemingly limitless capacity for innovation. We have domesticated fire, mastered flight, mapped our own genome and invented the wheel, the telescope and the Internet. So why are we so listless, so incompetent to deal with the climate crisis, the greatest existential threat we have ever faced?
It is not because we have lost the sense of innovation. Clever minds, for example, have recently discovered how to make cotton clothing designed to function as and replace the petroleum-derived polyester synthetics that pollute our air, water, food and body with non-biodegradable plastic microfibers.
Nor is it because we don’t know what to do to prevent climate catastrophe: stop dumping carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
So what is the root of humanity’s incompetence when it comes to solving the climate crisis?
For a while, it was easy to invoke the “slow boil” explanation, that climate change is a threat that evolves so slowly that humans behave like the frog thrown into a pot of cool water. which heats up so gradually that the frog does not notice that it is cooked alive. Admittedly, this explanation is no longer credible given that virtually all regions of the world are experiencing increasingly frequent and record-breaking climatic extremes such as wildfires, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, melting glaciers and sea level rise.
The fact that heads of state, climate experts and climate activists have come together every year for 26 consecutive years to address the climate crisis (the so-called Conference of the Parties, or COP) is further proof that the slow boiling hypothesis has become blunted. In fact, COP 26 just ended in November with the sad news that even the UNthe enforceable greenhouse gas emission reduction pledges of the nearly 200 participating countries will not suffice for the reductions needed to prevent the worst effects of global warming.
The fundamental reasons for our failure to tackle climate change are simple and twofold: unregulated corporate capitalism and the failure of governments to act in the public interest. Corporate profit is what established economies here in the United States and abroad based on the free burning of fossil fuels and what continues to push the world to ignore the looming climate crisis in favor of profits at short term business. When coupled with a corrupt political system where politicians are beholden to corporate donors who get them elected, the well-being of the public and the planet takes a back seat.
Netflix bombshell Don’t Look Up captures this climate inaction formula through the satirical allegory of a planet-killing comet heading straight for earth. Despite ample scientific evidence that the only way for humans and the planet to survive is to permanently detonate the comet before it gets too close, our government is bowing to the whim of a profiteering corporate CEO with a cockamamie’s scheme to mine the comet for rare earth elements. If you haven’t seen the movie, I won’t spoil the ending for you.
David Sirota is an American journalist and screenwriter who contributed to Don’t Look Up. During a Jan. 7 appearance on independent outlet Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, he clarified the film’s core subject matter, “how elites and institutions fail to act in the public interest.” As an example, he pointed out that politicians and the media typically fail to address how a bill will affect the livable ecosystem on which human life depends, instead commenting on how the economy might be. affected.
This misguided thinking effectively puts humans and our planet’s life support systems at the service of the economy. Shouldn’t the economy instead be seen as a tool to ensure a livable planet for humans and other living creatures?
We are currently seeing this same reversal of priorities in the deadlock of Congress passing President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda that purports to offer a roadmap to achieving net zero carbon emissions by mid-century. The arguments against focus on the dollar cost, without considering the cost in human suffering and devastation to the planet of the federal government’s inaction.
The fact that in December Congress passed a $768 billion defense bill despite the end of the war in Afghanistan should shamefully overturn any suggestion that the money is simply not there to protect the public of the increasingly devastating climatic extremes that are already plaguing all regions of the country. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry continues to be subsidized by our taxes as carbon dioxide leaks into the atmosphere without any liability or penalty for the damage caused.
If the Build Back Better climate provisions are gutted, we can still expect more climate-conscious pockets of the nation to go ahead despite Washington’s indifference. This gives me some hope. For one thing, on January 1, California became the first state to mandate the separation of food waste from general household garbage with the dual purpose of recycling it and reducing the amount of greenhouse methane emitted from landfills.
In the spirit of the environmental maxim “think globally but act locally”, I am delighted to receive my new green food/yard waste bin and to do my bit. Unfortunately, this maxim rings hollow in the face of the magnitude of the actions needed to bring global warming under control in time to preserve a livable world for future generations. It is urgent that we convince world leaders, politicians and business leaders to prioritize both thinking and act globally.
