From top: Flooding at Cobh harbour, county Cork; Anthony Sheridan
RTÉ presenter Kathryn Thomas, sitting in for Ray D’Arcy on RTÉ Radio One, was bubbling with optimism as she introduced author Oisin McGann to talk about his new book – A Short, Hopeful Guide to Climate Change.
While documentaries on climate change are great they can, at times, be a bit overwhelming Thomas told listeners, so she was delighted with the publication of a book with the word ‘hopeful’ in it.
The author, who wrote the book on request from Little Island Books and Friends of the Earth, was equally optimistic about the future, saying:
“People have been working on this [saving the environment] for a very long time, the progress that built our civilisation is still going and it’s taking us away from fossil fuels.”
Thomas enthusiastically agreed:
“Greta Thunberg. and all the rallies that have been happening around the world are great but it’s sometimes forgotten that a lot of the environmental work has been done as far back as the 80s.”
McGann added:
“This is the first time as a species we’ve decided to take on something that is a planet wide problem and do something about it. Things are happening, Shell lost a big court case, Bord Na Mona have stopped mining peat.”
Yes, Thomas agreed and Ireland has passed its first climate bill.
I shouldn’t have, but, I couldn’t help laughing out loud at this example of hope for the future.
Thomas concluded the interview on an optimistic note:
“There’s lots to be hopeful about and as David Attenborough said, we have a decade to change and while that doesn’t sound like a long time, there is momentum and we’ve got to be hopeful.”
I really, really despair when I listen to such discussions. Neither McGann nor Thomas are aware that it is they who pose the greatest danger because they promote hope as a solution when fear is the only emotion that gives humans any chance of survival.
When humans are filled with hope they sit back and do little or nothing. When they’re filled with fear they take immediate action.
This is because over millions of years, the human brain, of necessity, evolved into a strictly short-term acting entity. This makes sense when we consider that for almost all of history, humans only had to deal with short-term problems, principally concerning food, shelter and protection.
Humans can imagine into the long-term but cannot act in the present to resolve problems that may arise in the far future. It is only when a problem becomes short-term, when humans are faced with immediate danger that they respond effectively.
In other words – fear is the psychological spark that triggers immediate action when faced with catastrophe.
The book is aimed at teenagers, the generation that will bear the brunt of what’s coming. They need to be told the truth so that they feel the fear which in turn may trigger the action necessary to save themselves.
Here’s just one example:
In the latest David Attenborough documentary [Breaking boundaries: The science of our planet] we are told that the Greenland ice sheet cannot be saved. The ice sheet is losing 10,000 cubic metres per second.
Before this astonishing figure was complete, my mind was guessing the timescale – per month, no, perhaps per week or even per day…no, I thought it couldn’t be that bad.
So….just to repeat: It’s losing 10,000 cubic metres – per second.
Its unstoppable destruction will result in a 7 metre rise in sea levels. This is not an IF, it’s going to happen, very soon.
I live in Cobh, in Cork harbour. The 7 metre rise will destroy the town front. The deep water quay, railway station, heritage centre, Victorian promenade and all the homes and business along the town will be submerged – forever.
But Cobh raises steeply from the sea so the higher areas will survive, for the time being anyway. Cork city will not be so lucky. The city is built on a swamp, it suffers regular flooding particularly when tide and wind are in sync.
Very soon, this will no longer be a problem after the sea engulfs the city – forever.
This 7 metre rise will, of course, be catastrophic for all coastal cities and towns in Ireland and around the world, there is no way to stop it.
False hope is as dangerous as ignoring or denying what’s about to happen. The instilling of global fear is the only rational strategy if we’re to avoid the complete collapse of civilisation.
Anthony Sheridan is a freelance journalist and blogs at Back Garden Philosophy
Pic: Jimmy Stafford
i don’t believe in motivation by fear. Even if it achieves its immediate objective, the collateral damage to the human race by causing them to fear and training them to learn by fear is too great.
Promote enjoyment of beauty and humans will learn how to nurture and protect it.
Your objective of improving the environment is a good one which deserves to be promoted by more positive means as part of enhancing empowerment and joy in the human race generally.
The future has the potential to be much much better than you think – don’t let beliefs about how bad people are limit your dream and taint it.
I agree, fupp fear, same thing that religions sell and a terrible reason to do everything,
+1
Pushing fear is a very useful way for grifters to exploit situations for profit. The green industry is much dirtier than people think. There’s lots of great people trying to make a difference but also a lot of frauds.
more fear? i’ll just file that with the rest of it.
so that’s after cancer, before winklerot and crabs.
the United States officially began the process of pulling out of the Paris Agreement, an international deal struck in 2016 that aimed to keep greenhouse gas emissions low enough to keep Earth’s climate-induced warming to under 2 degrees Celsius (3.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
But even if the U.S. stayed in the agreement, finds new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, there are long-tail, unavoidable consequences for the world’s coastlines. Even if all countries hit their Paris targets by 2030 and then stopped emitting carbon entirely, an unrealistic scenario but a useful thought experiment, the world’s oceans will still slosh higher. Under these idealistic conditions, by 2300—about eight generations away—sea levels around the world will be about 3 feet higher than today, the scientists say.
Aye, it’s coming… in waves!
‘when fear is the only emotion that gives humans any chance of survival.’
I find it fantastically inane that you think it’s a binary.
‘When humans are filled with hope they sit back and do little or nothing’
No, that’s when they’re complacent, or in despair, or frozen in fear.
‘This makes sense when we consider that for almost all of history, humans only had to deal with short-term problems, principally concerning food, shelter and protection.’
For almost all of history, humans have been developing their problem-solving skills to deal with ever-expanding perceptions of the problems to be solved and more accurate predictions of future problems.
‘Humans can imagine into the long-term but cannot act in the present to resolve problems that may arise in the far future.’
This is a ridiculous claim, but even if it were true the problems posed by climate change are no longer in the far future, they are in the immediate present.
‘In other words – fear is the psychological spark that triggers immediate action when faced with catastrophe.’
If that were so, the actions would have been taken by now. People are terrified of wildfires. People are terrified of flooding. People are terrified of heatwaves and drought. People are terrified of hurricanes. People are terrified of what’s happening to the oceans. People are terrified of biodiversity loss and air pollution. They’re all terrified of these things RIGHT NOW. The actions haven’t been taken becaause there’s too much money and power invested in opposing or delaying or co-opting the solutions, not because everyone else isn’t feeling the appropriate emotions.
‘They need to be told the truth so that they feel the fear which in turn may trigger the action necessary to save themselves.’
When I was growing up I was terrified of nuclear war. Everyone was. As a problem, it didn’t diminish until the two powers invested in nuclear weaponry decided to de-escalate, and my fear had nothing to do with it. On the other hand a bunch of people who were worried but hopeful that their actions could acheive something got an international ban on whaling. A bunch of people who were worried but hopeful got CFCs banned to solve the problem of the hole in the ozone layer. A bunch of people who were worried but hopeful got lead banned from petrol.
‘there is no way to stop it.’
There are potential geoengineering solutions that could slow or stop ice loss, but they would be massive and costly. Being terrified isn’t going to get them underway, being smart is.
‘The instilling of global fear is the only rational strategy’
No, it isn’t. Fear is the opposite of rationality. Global warming will instil global fear, and panic, all on its own, with no help from us, and it will probably only make everything worse, because the people feeling it durectly will be in no position to do anything but look after their own personal survival. The only rational approach is through intelligence, compassion and co-operation. You have to organise on the ground, and build a national movement and shape government policy, like the Repeal the 8th campaign. Luckily, Extinction Rebellion and a myriad other environmental organisations have already started.
Oisin McGann’s books is great, everyone should get it!
Why are seafront properties so expensive?
The property market is just a collection of perverse inventives. If you are using property as a rational indicator of anything, I refer you to the examples of ‘soft landings’ and ‘negative equity is nothing to worry about.’
From Anthony Sheridan’s point of view, I note that people being terrified of homlessness has somehow failed to solve the property crisis.
Barack Obama paid 11 million dollars for a property in the Hamptons which will be under water within ten years, according to his own estimates.
Can you articulate an argument based on this with reference to climate change? I can’t make anything out of it beyond ‘rich and powerful people feel invulnerable and insulated.’
That reads as an admission of incapacity to see the point, nothing more, in fairness.
I did enjoy, and guffaw, at your declaration in the line “fear is the opposite of rationality”… hehehe :)
What is really funny too, is you have changed your mind on fear mongering environmental issues, and call for rationality and calm to solve them. Keep that up lad!
But what is the point? The behaviour of one person, the reasons for which i can only speculate on unless he’s adressed them directly somehwere, has no bearing on the reality of climate change. Now that I think of it though, maybe it represents an act of defiant hope over fear? I dunno. There’s acres of science done on climate change, endless proposed possible soutions, to which ‘Barack Obama’s house’ is completely non-responsive.
‘What is really funny too, is you have changed your mind on fear mongering environmental issues’
No, I haven’t. You’ve always misunderstood. The reality of climate change is going to unavoidably inspire worry, anxiety and fear, particularly among younger people who are all too likely to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. You can’t let that stop you talking about that reality, because that reality is of critical importance. My point is you carry on and try to be constructive and hopeful in spite of the fear, but you also have to acknowledge the fear or it will poison everything. This book is an excellent example of that.
Fear mongering =/= reality.
Then again, it is yourself soo… anything goes in Nigel land, truth be told.
Actually, I should revise that, I honestly think the REAL source of climate change related fear is the spectacle of inaction, ongoing active destruction, bare-faced lying and denialism, and massive money-making interests acting with impunity in commiting homicide on a global level. There is nothing inevitable about climate change, there is nothing intrinsic to human nature that prevents us dealing with it, just people with lots of money.
Another LOL! “nothing inevitable about climate change” :)
I’d add… Nothing inevitable about climate accept for the inevitable fact that it changes :)
‘Fear mongering =/= reality.’
I’m sorry. i should have known it would be too complex for you.
Nope, I ain’t the one struggling with that one :)
‘Nothing inevitable about climate accept for the inevitable fact that it changes’
Good God did I really need to put the ‘anthropomorphic’ in front of that for you? Do I have to explain that this is a result of choices that were made and actions that were taken, that it’s not fate or destiny, and therefore can be subject to change by different choices and actions? Cripes.
Yes lad. Considering you’re the nincompoop who said we could reverse climate change, yes, most definitely yes, you should clarify your points so anyone reading doesn’t think your off on one of your fantasy rants :)
‘Nope, I ain’t the one struggling with that one’
No, that would require a little effort on your part.
We CAN reverse climate change. It’s entirely acheivable. With effort, over decades, maybe a century because a lot of stuff is baked in at this point. What the hell is wrong with you? What are you even trying to say?
How dare you!
Don’t worry, recent event in Europe ie white people flooded and dying may well be the motivation required.
When humans are filled with hope they sit back and do little or nothing. When they’re filled with fear they take immediate action.
This has been FG/FF/NPHET/RTE’s strategy for the last 16 months. It doesn’t work.
oh I beg to differ, it most certainly DOES work
Nope, it doesn’t. It might have some short term effect but as we can see this wears off quickly. Climate change cannot be solved by fear, only by truthful dialogue which builds trust, but Irish Governments are incapable of truth.
Our Planet is allegedly dying, but the only action taken by Government is tax increases. What message does this send?
I think the message it sends is that people need to send messages to the government and send better people into government, over and over and over again.
Fear often motivates people into following the line of authoritarian agenda setters. There are three other motivators in the history of humanity:- faith, hope and charity. Every attitude of mind can be abused by schemers, of course.
When’s “very soon”? I’d love to know, even an estimate, hours, days, weeks, months…
Besides, any town build on a swamp is sitting in the path of destruction.
Many people have lost their lives in Europe due to houses being built on swamp land or land to close to a river bed. It’s a fact of nature, known and understood for centuries, but some money grabber decided that they could build houses wherever they wanted, all goes well for years and then the torrential rains and floods (of tears) arrive.
plus all the new builds on the flood plain in Portmarnock
+1
M’eh. ’tis only the langers in Cork.
Let ’em swim