Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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S<br />
34 politics and governance<br />
<strong>to</strong> any one generation, which assumed <strong>the</strong> deterioration <strong>to</strong> be<br />
natural—<strong>the</strong> problem <strong>of</strong> “shifting baselines.” Many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> causes<br />
<strong>of</strong> ecological deterioration were simply unknown or operated at<br />
a scale—ei<strong>the</strong>r <strong>to</strong>o large or <strong>to</strong>o small—or at a velocity—ei<strong>the</strong>r<br />
<strong>to</strong>o fast or <strong>to</strong>o slow—that we could not comprehend. And much<br />
enamored <strong>of</strong> science and technology and blinded by <strong>the</strong> 18thcentury<br />
ideology <strong>of</strong> progress and economic growth, we did not<br />
see what was happening right before our eyes. In <strong>the</strong> 20th century,<br />
<strong>the</strong> warnings came more <strong>of</strong>ten and helped <strong>to</strong> launch <strong>the</strong> environmental<br />
movement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1960s. But <strong>the</strong> <strong>to</strong>tality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> problem<br />
remained shrouded in political controversy and concealed by<br />
complexity and was mostly ignored by much <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> public, which<br />
was happily diverted by consumption and mass entertainment. In<br />
<strong>the</strong> opening decades <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 21st century, <strong>the</strong> evidence <strong>of</strong> global<br />
environmental <strong>collapse</strong> is unmistakable—<strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> decades <strong>of</strong><br />
failed policies and inadequate remedies (Speth, 2008).<br />
But how do we say such things <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> public effectively enough<br />
<strong>to</strong> galvanize a constituency for signifi cant changes in government,<br />
business, and daily life? On one side <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> debate are many with a<br />
deep concern about <strong>the</strong> state <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> environment who believe that<br />
<strong>the</strong> public, <strong>to</strong>ld <strong>the</strong> full truth, would ei<strong>the</strong>r ignore it or become<br />
despondent. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r side are those who believe that <strong>the</strong><br />
only chance <strong>to</strong> mobilize <strong>the</strong> public in <strong>the</strong> brief time available is <strong>to</strong><br />
speak <strong>the</strong> truth without exaggeration, but without diluting it with<br />
“happy talk.” There is, in o<strong>the</strong>r words, a serious difference between<br />
those who, like T. S. Eliot, believe that “human kind/ Cannot bear<br />
very much reality” and those who advocate an approach like that<br />
<strong>of</strong> Wins<strong>to</strong>n Churchill in 1940, who summoned <strong>the</strong> British people<br />
<strong>to</strong> a considerable level <strong>of</strong> heroism, while <strong>of</strong>fering only “blood, <strong>to</strong>il,<br />
tears, and sweat.” With bombs falling on London, Churchill did<br />
not talk cheerily about <strong>the</strong> new opportunities for urban renewal<br />
or <strong>the</strong> possibilities for defeating <strong>the</strong> Nazis at a pr<strong>of</strong>i t. But one<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> unknowns <strong>of</strong> our time is whe<strong>the</strong>r we are still <strong>the</strong> kind <strong>of</strong><br />
people who can be summoned <strong>to</strong> heroism when it’s all on <strong>the</strong>