H I N T S A N D G L I M P S E S

Climate Change

If you know anything, you know climate change will never be reversed. The best we can hope for is a slowing down of the rate greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere. So we all already know “the worst is yet to come,” as The New York Times headlined its piece on the new UN report.

But why repeat the obvious?

My guess is that it is like raising our voice when we don’t feel we are being heard. The repetition is a sign of just how poorly the message is getting across.

As Mark Bittman put it: “when every scientist in the world [not] in the employ of climate change deniers tells us that we’ve long since passed the place where we could ‘turn back’ the effects of global warming, acknowledging its effects should be no more shocking than arising to a blanket of snow on the ground after having watched flakes fall through the night.”