DYER: Its time to accept that urgent action on climate change is needed

Gwynne Dyer HandoutArticle contentThe first hurricane to hit Hawaii in 34 years. The Mediterranean on fire from Spain to Greece. ‘Heat domes’ one after another for months on end in Europe and North America. Thousands of excess deaths. A record ‘El Niño’ piled on top of an average global temperature up from +1.2°C five years ago. Predicted high for this year: +1.7°C.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentSurely they’ll get it now, you think, but no, they won’t. It once seemed sensible to think that when the climate damage gets bad enough and the trend line becomes impossible to ignore, ‘they’ (meaning the climate change deniers and their fellow travellers) will finally accept that the threat is real and urgent action is necessary. A few of them will, but most will not.Article contentArticle contentArticle contentIt is becoming clear that as the old position of flat disbelief in climate science becomes untenable, the preferred response among former deniers is to admit that climate change is big, dangerous and already well underway – but to insist that it is already too late and nothing can be done about it now.Article contentThe most dramatic movement in ballet is the grand jeté, a soaring leap across the stage. In my mind’s eye I can see the deniers in tutus and tights, springing up from the swamp called Denial, soaring gracefully over the cluttered workspaces of real scientists, and alighting happily in the philosophical domain known as Resignation. There goes another one.Article contentYet it is strange, is it not? They have undergone a complete reversal of beliefs, but somehow they have managed to end up in the only other position from which they could plausibly argue that they don’t have to do anything about their greenhouse gas emissions. “It’s hopeless, we’re doomed, so eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow….”Article contentArticle contentWhat a coincidence! It’s almost as if somebody were deliberately influencing them along a path from one set of beliefs to another, the sole link between those contradictory beliefs being that both the old and the new sets make it seem acceptable to go on burning fossil fuels.Article contentBut let’s not succumb to paranoia. Who could possibly want to steer popular beliefs along a path that would ultimately harm the public just because it would serve their personal interest in prolonging the use of a lethal technology? Let’s just concentrate on the accuracy of the claim that it’s too late, without getting into awkward issues about whose interest it serves.Article contentThe grand old man of climate nihilism is American writer Jonathan Franzen, who wrote in 2019: “If you care about the planet, and about the people and animals who live on it, there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming.”