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The Locomotive Is Coming and We Can’t Keep Holding A Picnic on the Tracks
I don’t really need to convince anyone that we cannot continue doing what we are doing.
I’m often told that I need to convince people, that they like things the way they are. They love their stuff, their big people toys. They won’t give them up just because the climate is collapsing.
Oh, but they will.
The people who say we should just keep doing what we are doing, with perhaps some minor modifications, don’t actually believe in the climate crisis. They are comfortable today and truly believe they will be comfortable tomorrow and everyday thereafter.
They don’t really believe in droughts, floods, wildfires, killer storms, heat domes, bomb cyclones. They haven’t experienced any of this. To them, sometimes “there’s a bit too much rain” or “it’s warmer out today than I’d expect.” No biggie.
This is other people’s problems or no problem at all.
Reality Moves the Needle
Frank Luntz invented and promoted the terminology that minimizes the climate crisis. To him, the climate was just a political issue and his job was to help the GOP. So, he told his employers to ditch the term global warming—which sounded like a potential problem—and replace it with the mild…
