Paul Krugman’s Monday column claimed that climate change denial struck him as a form of treason against the planet. I mostly agree with what he has to say in the column, but something about that strikes me as not quite right.
The planet is a giant chunk of rock which developed the atmosphere and oceans that spawned life as we know it. This life has gone through an evolutionary process which has produced our species among many others. Our species through arguably comparable processes produced civilization. All on this one speck in the universe which is so hospitable to life, and human life in particular, in comparison to every other planet we know anything about.
But it’s not the giant chunk of rock we’re betraying. We’re betraying one another, ourselves and our children. We’re betraying our fellow life forms. Whether it’s our fellow species we’re eradicating, our fellow civilization’s farm lands we’re desertifying, our own coastal cities we’re submerging, or our own water supply that we’re all but eliminating, we’re committing treason against [ETA: the future of] life, humanity, civilization and ourselves. But the planet simply is. It’ll be here whether we destroy ourselves or not.
Someone sent me this yesterday, it’s simple, yet persuasive. It’s 20 minutes, but what’s 20 minutes compared with the life of a planet?
I don’t intend to dispute with you the seriousness of the issue, but I can’t view it as a “betrayal” when a majority of the population really couldn’t care less about fixing the problem. Betrayal is when everybody is counting on you, and then you intentionally screw them.
I can. I think we’re using different definitions of “betray” here. One can deliberately commit actions that break trusts even without intending to break the trust. That counts as betrayal in my book. Whether it is ignorance of or indifference to the consequences of one’s actions, it is still betrayal.
People are counting on a planet hospitable to humanity going forward, whether we believe we are screwing that up or not.
I think he’s just using “planet” as shorthand for many of the inhabitants of it. Compare to viewing a “body” as a lump of organic chemicals or the life that inhabits it. I think this isn’t so uncommn. At the peak of Bomb Afghanistan US Flag fervor, I saw many people raising Earth flags, with just a picture of Earth. I think the meaning was clearer there.
I know some people who see the whole Green movement as an attempt for “Earth Worshipers” to proselytize their religion. Being a Religion, not a Science, it is BAD, and should be stamped out.
While, like EVERYTHING ELSE, people get facts wrong, mean well when they don’t really understand what they’re talking about, may even lie, or stretch the truth, to get their way, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t doing some MIGHTILY STOOPID things that hurt people and animals, and may just destroy any future they, or we, have.
The best we can do is to keep trying to learn what’s going on, both scientifically and politically, and let others know those things.
You said that very well.
george carlin: “The PLANET is fine…. The PEOPLE are fucked.”