I’m reading a book by Charles C. Mann called The Wizard and the Prophet. It’s a well written, engaging, and really interesting approach to discussing the issue of climate change, and how humanity could potentially mitigate the consequences of it. Whether through a techno-fix (the approach of the wizards), or through modification of our behaviours and systems in order to live within the capacity of the Environment (the approach of the prophets), or a combination of the two.
I’ve yet to finish the book – I’m about 3/4 of the way through, but so far it has taken a purely human-centric justification for tackling climate change – the survival of our race and our societies.
The author discusses how it’s hard to mobilise people to take action against something they’re not directly experiencing – now or in the immediate future. That taking action – be it investing capital in to technology that will address a future need rather than a current need, or denying oneself certain luxuries, in order to ensure a good standard of living for people in the future, against a future threat is difficult for us humans to carry out when we are uncertain as to its timing, its likelihood and its severity.
He provides interesting justifications for these challenges, which I assume is leading to a conclusion that rather than walk a path at the extreme – be it the path of the wizard or the prophet, we should instead try and walk the middle path – a combination of both conservation and innovation.
But what a narrow, human-centric exploration of the issue of climate change disregards is that we are not the only ones suffering the consequences a changing climate and disrupted ecosystems. Our focus should not be exclusively on the preserving our own species, but preserving all species.
Through our recklessness and ignorance we have caused a 6th mass extinction, which is still ongoing, and indeed gathering pace. Biodiversity loss is something that every country is being negatively impacted by today, and something we should all be taking action on as a matter of urgency.
There are no justifications – philosophical or psychological – for letting this persist and for continued apathy and inaction by our politicians and us citizens.
Most of us may be blind to it, due to living in urban environments and being disconnected from the production of our food and other necessities and luxuries. But that’s no excuse – particularly for our political leaders, who have had knowledge of the issue and threat it poses for decades, and have chosen not to take meaningful action.
So, if the reason for inaction around the issue of climate change is largely linked to our inability – as individuals and as a society, to prepare for the future, then let’s re-frame the argument for and the focus of action so it’s not purely directed towards protecting the future for people’s children and grandchildren, and is focused instead on addressing the direct and indirect consequences of our actions that are occurring right in front of our eyes right now.