We must overcome climate apocalypse scepticism
Julian Cribb has highlighted the apocalyptic threats that the world faces, within the present century and possibly within the current decade, from the Arctic ice melt, and from the slowing ‘Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation’ (the ‘Gulf Stream’) as a result of increasing global warming from our ever-growing carbon emissions.
These threats are real, and their likelihood increases daily. Why, therefore, is the world doing so little to prevent them?
Dorian Lynskey posits, in his book ‘Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell about the End of the World’, that we ignore apocalyptic alarms because we have become enured to them over generations. There’s often been an apocalypse pending – religious, pandemic,nuclear, or climate. Many people no longer take these threats seriously. Apocalyptic events are the stuff they enjoy in movies and books: they have become part of the adult playground.
This poses a major communication challenge: how to convince people to implement the necessary changes before it is too late to avoid the looming climate apocalypse. This message must come from determined government, leading with uncompromising scientific fact. Otherwise it will be the arrival of the apocalypse itself which convinces, but that, when it comes, will be unstoppable.
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