107 Days - Ignorance is Blissful ... and Deadly (Is It Time for Sanctions?)

I feel as though I've stumbled into a parallel universe and am now looking at this world through a two-way mirror.

This sense of otherworldliness (or perhaps it's theatre of the absurd!) comes from knowing so much (some days it feels like too much) about the climate change crisis that is upon us, all the while watching so many people go about their daily lives as if nothing has changed.

When I do meet or hear from someone who "gets" what's happening to the biosphere, it's a bit of a surprise (albeit a pleasant one).

But it shouldn't be this way. We are so connected to the giant library we call the internet. They say that four billion people have cell phones - they can't be doing all that talking and not talking at all about climate change, can they? And bless them, the mainstream media are doing a better job of talking about the climate emergency than the vast majority of scientists and government leaders are. There ought to be more people talking about this issue.

But most, it seems, would rather be ignorant - and blissful. And dead (whether figuratively or literally).

Here's a real bugbear of mine: I reckon that if one has the technology and time to comment on an online article about the issue, then one has the technology and time to research the science of global warming and climate change. But I see so much ignorance there, too.

I used to think, "Oh, poor sods, they just aren't scientifically literate enough to understand." But for too long now, those of us who take the time to read what the scientists are discovering, and who have the compassion to note what is already happening due to climate disruption in other parts of the world, have refrained from criticizing the lazy and ignorant (stupid and selfish?) people who take the time to make unhelpful comments like the ones I read in online Comments sections.

Perhaps taking climate change into the "moral arena," as suggested by Al Gore (and others such as Tutu and Leape), could include social sanctions and moral outrage against those who continue to promote progenycide by sending in comments to online discussions of this issue that are out-of-date, ignorant of the science, and completely without empathy for present and future victims of climate breakdown.

Indeed, where is the moral outrage surrounding this most disastrous of messes our leaders have ever got us into? Why do we cry for inquiries into tiny, inconsequential scandals about sex or money (or sex and money) but remain mute to the complete bungling of the climate change emergency?

Why is there no sanctioning happening? Are we that afraid that we would have to sanction ourselves in the process?