> “We must redefine our way of life and consumption.” Judging by our failures so far, there is absolutely no chance of this happening on the time frame needed to have the desired impact. It would take a mobilization similar to the WW2 effort on a global scale and I don't see anything like that happening. In fact, from the people I talk to, they don't even consider this a high priority. The fate of society is not a hi…
> In fact, from the people I talk to, they don't even consider this a high priority. The fate of society is not a high priority in the lives of the average person. I feel that's partly due to the fact that there is no common "us" anymore, even inside of individual countries. No feeling of a greater good to serve. It's all about individualism/individuality and small in/out groups. Politicians don't even see the future…
It’s even trickier than that. Humans have a hard time putting their “future self” above their immediate gratification. You almost couldn’t engineer a worse crisis for humans than Climate Change because the effects are largely in the future — though we’re really starting to experience them now — and it requires sacrificing things in the short term. People can barely be convinced to save a bit of their income for retirement (or are so stretched they can’t afford to).