Waiting for the End of the World

Why does it feel like we're just waiting for the end of the world?

While some scientists predict that the world might become unlivable by the end of this century due to global warming and the inability of humanity to change its ways, the politics of the US election cycle seems to be dedicated to proving the inevitable correctness of this prediction. The three presidential candidates are carrying out their battle for the election as if there were nothing to be concerned about this year except the usual battle for supremacy at any cost. Bill Clinton said a few days ago that this is what we should expect of politics. And that is the attitude that will one day make us all witnesses to the end of the world.

Unless we act to dramatically transform our politics and the ways we live, work, and run our economies and governments within the next ten years, the climate change tipping point will be reached within the next decade, and we will all be converted into mere spectators with front seats from which to watch the global disaster play itself out, beginning with the present generation, and continuing into the next and the next, which in watching the world come to an end will curse our generation for not having done what was necessary when it was necessary to act to save the world. By 2020, the tipping point will have been reached, and there seems to be little sign that humanity will have the will or the wisdom to turn itself around before its too late.

Meanwhile the leaders and people of the United States are behaving as if this election year-- probably the most important for determining the future of this century and the potential of humanity to turn the tide--were just like any other. As if there is plenty of time to allow Hillary and Obama fight with each other over the scraps of political power, while the Wilkins ice shelf collapses and the conditions of the world climate and economy continue to worsen. If we fail to act within the next ten years to do what is necessary to turn the tide of global carbon dioxide production, history will care little which President won this election. Those around fifty years from now, will care only that our generation, THIS GENERATION betrayed the future of all humanity, and condemned its past to meaninglessness and forgetfulness--as the great libraries in coastal urban centers around the world begin to be swallowed by the rising ocean.