Death to the Environment

I was wondering at what point you just give up the fight. A recent article in the Times Magazine http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/magazine/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-and-he-feels-fine.html?ref=magazine told the story of Paul Kingsnorth, rabid environmentalist who staged all kinds of public disobedience demonstrations against polluters and despoilers over a period of several decades and his present change of heart. He has come to the realization that climate change is coming, will get worse, and mankind is not going to respond adequately to the challenge, and so the the battle is lost. Now his focus is figuring out how he and his descendants will survive in the new world of crazy weather and the cultural repercussions.

I found the article pretty disquieting. I'm as frustrated as the next guy about ignorant and selfish officials who deny climate change because their livelihoods depend on that denial. Plus they realize that they will not personally suffer the consequences of their non-actions since they'll be dead when the chickens come home to roost. But my impulse has always been that we need to change the composition of Congress and drive a hard bargain with other polluting nations to stem a threat that is all too real. 

The thought of giving up the fight has never entered my head. But you know, it's probably realistic. We are not a species prone to planning ahead. We confront a situation once it becomes a crisis. Climate change has become a subtle crisis--rising temperatures in some areas, more violent storms, isolated droughts and so forth. Makes me want to summon the overused image of the frog slowly being boiled to death over a low flame. Unfortunately, once the true scope of the disaster of climate change is manifest, it will be too late to act. Then we may all find ourselves jumping on Mr. Kingsnorth's bandwagon. 

Maybe giving up and figuring out how to adapt is the only sensible course.