Robert MacNeil Christie, Author

I read an article on Medium.com the other day “proclaiming that we have waited too long and the tipping point beyond which we can no longer stop the progression of climate chaos has passed. The author, “indi.ca,” is a good writer and he made a compelling case for the severity of the climate/ecological emergency that so many continue to deny or diminish. In other words, as former Attorney General, William Barr, said about the criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump, we are toast. Well, yes and no…

Survival or Not?

A couple of years ago, at the height of the covid-19 pandemic, I read a couple books, The Unthinkable, and Deep Survival. Both focused on the factors involved in whether people survive in a life-threatening emergency situation. I believe that I wrote a blog post about it back then. What fascinated me in learning what distinguished survivors from those who did not, was that almost invariably, the survivors were able to quickly suspend their normal perceptions and definitions of the conditions around them.

Their situational awareness was no longer based on the assumptions about reality that worked so well under normal conditions. They recognized that things were really quite different. So, they quickly adopted a new worldview that fit the contingencies that arose in the emergency. As some sociologists would put it, they adopted an entirely new ‘definition of the situation.’ That enabled them to take the most appropriate action, vastly increasing their likelihood of surviving.

Regardless of the kind of emergency, from a raging fire in a high rise building to being lost in the wilderness, or clinging to a sinking sailboat in a storm, the difference between those who lived or died was exactly the same. Their ability to shift their perspective from assuming normal definitions of the nature of their environment to recognizing that the conditions were extremely abnormal, saved them.

The Earth-System Emergency

It is very hard to change our live ways, especially when our immediate environment seems so pleasant, such as is the case for so many suburban Americans with secure jobs. It is also true for people whose lives are economically insecure and have little time to consider global issues. A recent survey found that about three fourths of Americans now believe that ‘climate change’ is real. Far fewer believe that it threatens the United States.

If I recall correctly, about forty-three percent recognize the existential threat of climate disruption. About forty percent have had either a direct experience with recent extreme weather events or have close relations, family or friends, who have directly experienced losses from such extremes, such as floods, heat waves, or hurricanes. That means that most of those who recognize the existential threat of climate chaos have directly or indirectly through ‘significant others’ experienced it themselves.

It takes a lot to change people’s habits. We have habits of mind as well as behavioral habits, some of which may spill over into addiction. An extreme example would be the MAGA Republicans who refuse to believe that Trump even took secret documents from the White House to Mar a Lago, although he has admitted to doing so while asserting that he had very right to take them. Most Americans have lived in what some call a “consumer bubble,” from the extremely wealthy to the average worker barely making ends meet. From inside that bubble, we all tend to construct a world around us that we can live with.

Events, however, may pop that bubble, even though for some it seems to take far more catastrophic events. Some people who have died in emergencies could have saved themselves if they had only let go of their habits of thinking and recognized the fact that they were in an entirely new situation.

What to Do, or Not

Let us just assume for the moment that we have already passed some climate tipping points. Are we ‘toast’? Well, it certainly could be argued that we are, and that is exactly what indi.ca argued on the Medium site. So, in that case what shall we do? Well, here is where I fall back on values. Do I want to simply give up because the probabilities are dismal? Just how certain is the doom theory? After all, the probabilities do look bad, especially given that we have yet to see any serious government or corporate action on climate or ecological deterioration.

I have a lot of trouble with the attitude that if things look grim we should give up. That’s not how I was raised and it is not how I think. In every crisis or near crisis I have ever experiences, whether large or small, my response has always been something like, “Well, okay, given this dire situation, what shall we do to escape its most dangerous aspects? It is all about facing reality with hope (not the fatalistic attitude of pessimists or optimists). I refuse to accept the bad and will fight it as long as I can. I always remember Chris Hedges statement, “I fight fascists not because I will win; I fight fascists because they are fascists.”

I guess I view fossil-fueled climate and ecological chaos as evil in much the same way Hedges views fascism. It threatens humanity and the only thing to do is fight it to the end.