{"id":54976,"date":"2020-09-11T06:40:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T11:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=54976"},"modified":"2020-09-11T06:40:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T11:40:50","slug":"is-there-a-limit-to-optimism-when-it-comes-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=54976","title":{"rendered":"Is there a limit to optimism when it comes to climate change?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Is there a limit to optimism when it comes to climate change?<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"<p><em>Photo<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Photo by Lance Cheung\/USDA<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\u2018We\u2019re doomed\u2019: a common refrain in casual conversation about climate change. It signals an awareness that we cannot, strictly speaking, avert climate change. It is already here. All we can hope for is to\u00a0minimise<\/em>\u00a0climate change by keeping global average temperature changes to less than 1.5\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid rending consequences to global civilisation. It is still physically possible, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a 2018 special\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 but \u2018realising 1.5\u00b0C-consistent pathways would require rapid and systemic changes on unprecedented scales\u2019.<\/p>\n

Physical possibility aside, the observant and informed layperson can be forgiven her doubts on the question of\u00a0political<\/em>\u00a0possibility. What should be the message from the climate scientist, the environmental activist, the conscientious politician, the ardent planner \u2013 those daunted but committed to pulling out all the stops? It is the single most important issue facing the community of climate-concerned Earthlings. We know what is happening. We know what to do. The remaining question is how to convince ourselves to do it.<\/p>\n

We are, I believe, witnessing the emergence of two kinds of responses. One camp \u2013 let us call its members \u2018the optimists\u2019 \u2013 believes that foremost in our minds ought to be the strict possibility of surmounting the challenge ahead. Yes, it is also possible that we will fail, but why think about that? To doubt is to risk a self-fulfilling prophecy. William James captured the essence of this thought in his lecture \u2018The Will to Believe\u2019 (1896): occasionally, when faced with a\u00a0salto mortale<\/em> (or critical step), \u2018faith creates its own verification\u2019 where doubt would cause one to lose one\u2019s footing.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there a limit to optimism when it comes to climate change? Photo by Lance Cheung\/USDA \u2018We\u2019re doomed\u2019: a common refrain in casual conversation about climate change. It signals an awareness that we cannot, strictly speaking, avert climate change. It is already here. All we can hope for is to\u00a0minimise\u00a0climate change by keeping global average […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[12705,141,30285,369,603,623],"class_list":["post-54976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-aeon","tag-climate-change","tag-fiacha-heneghan","tag-global-warming","tag-optimism","tag-pessimism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54977,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54976\/revisions\/54977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}