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Well-meaning and smart people say “game over.” What they are missing is imagination.
Nobody with any sense of reality thinks everything is fine. We—our entire species, and the biosphere itself—is in deep trouble. Obviously.
Nearly all climate scientists—both the optimists and the pessimists—like Michael E. Mann (optimist) and James Hansen (pessimist) are still calling for immediate, serious climate action. Now Hansen believes we are closer to the end than Mann, but neither says it’s time to throw in the towel.
I listen to the scientists.
There is a contingent, however, that aren’t climate deniers or self-serving fossil fuel profiteers, yet say it’s time to surrender to our fate. They think that the Earth is carrying too many human beings and can’t continue as it is. They believe it’s time to simply prepare for the end, and that there is no denying or delaying it.
Surely they are right about some things. The Earth is supporting more people than ever, and they continue ruining their own habitat at breakneck speed. The human civilization, as it’s constructed, is based on oil—and greed, and elitism with a few taking nearly everything and billions of others producing everything—fighting over scraps.
The people who warn about overshoot are absolutely and completely correct—we cannot…
