What Optimism and Pessimism Are in the 21st Century, a Reflection on “Are We Doomed?,” And Two Narratives of the Human Journey
Quick Links and Fresh Thinking
- ‘Things I’m ashamed to admit’: TikTok trend driving new level of oversharing (The Guardian)
- How the Ray-Ban Wayfarer became the accessory of choice for the men-children of the world (El Pais)
- Why We’re All Still Waiting for the EV Future (Inc)
- US will push China to change a policy threatening American jobs, Treasury Secretary Yellen says (AP News)
- Assessing the health burden from air pollution (Science)
Hi! How’s everyone? Thank you for joining me, and welcome new readers.
Today we’re going to discuss… “are we doomed?!” That’s the kind of dismal, reductive framing that’s emerged around an issue that deserves better—decline, degeneration, the rise of a number of troubling trends, all at once.
Let’s reflect on this sort of question together, beginning with…
Exhibit One In: “Are We Doomed?”
Did that make you shudder a little bit? If you don’t quite get the point, let me spell it out.
Right about now, climate scientists are a little horrified, bewildered, and perplexed. We’re in “uncharted territory,” and warming’s outpacing models, sometimes by a very long way. It was recently 40 degrees Centigrade in…Antarctica.
Meanwhile, the average person is less and less likely to believe that this is real, aka, there’s such a thing as human-made climate change. In the last few years alone, the number’s grown significantly, and over a quarter now believe that climate change is due to “natural causes, up from just 14%. That’s not an absolutely high number in itself, but the trend is striking, disturbing, and sort of mega-troubling: increasing numbers of people are climate deniers.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
