Humans Seem Hell Bent on Committing Mass Suicide -- But There's Still Hope

By Fred Branfman, AlterNet. Posted May 15, 2009.

On March 10, the Los Angeles Times reported that "scientists at a Copenhagen summit on climate change said sea levels will rise much faster than predicted, perhaps 3 feet by 2100, because of melting polar ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. ... An accelerated thaw ... could be devastating for 600 million people who live in low-lying areas."

How have humans responded to the climate scientists who have studied this situation? Have they reduced global warming?

Humans have actually responded by accelerating the destruction of their biosphere. After agreeing in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 to reduce CO2 emissions to 1990 levels, they subsequently increased them. The United States has increased its emissions by about 15 percent since 1997. The giant nations of India and China, more than one-third of humanity, have been increasing carbon emissions even more rapidly.

But this is incredible! What are they thinking?

The New York Times reported on January 22, 2009, that a recent U.S. poll found that "global warming came in last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists. Only 30 percent of the voters deemed global warming to be ‘a top priority’ compared with 35 percent in 2008."

As a politician, President Obama and his team are constrained by the public’s denial of biospheric reality. Obama early rejected the idea of increasing taxes on gasoline, a critical though still small part of the overall carbon tax that Hansen has urged. There is no evidence yet that either America or the other major nations of the world are prepared to take the radical steps necessary to avoid global biospheric catastrophe.

The Obama team is trying its best, with a "cap-and-trade" proposal that would set a cap on carbon emissions. But even this half-measure has little future. The L.A. Times reported on April 24, 2009, that the cap-and-trade "plan has produced one of Congress’ rare displays of bipartisanship—in opposition to Obama. Many moderates and coal-state Democrats have joined with Republicans in opposing the ‘cap and trade’ plan."

Given all this, is there any reason to hope?

Hope lies in the fact that the Earth can still be saved, and the fact that humans actually know what they need to do to save it. They can eliminate coal plants within a decade, institute carbon taxes, make massive investments in renewable energy and automobiles powered by renewable energy, phase out those running on fossil fuels, encourage movement into cities and mass transit to avoid wasteful use of autos, prioritize local production and possibly accelerate the development of safe nuclear power. Renewable wind power alone could meet much of America’s electricity needs. As an April 3, 2009, L.A. Times article stated: "Wind turbines off U.S. coastlines could potentially supply more than enough electricity to meet the nation’s current demand, the Interior Department reported Thursday."

These steps are not only doable, but could spark an economic renaissance over the long term. At the moment, however, these technically doable measures are politically inconceivable.

But why? Why would human beings march like lemmings off a cliff? Why would they commit species suicide?

The fundamental problem is that the biospheric crisis has arisen too suddenly for human values and attitudes to adjust. Humans have pursued fossil-fuel-powered economic growth since the onset of the Industrial Revolution 150 years ago, culminating a millennia-long struggle to control rather than be prey to nature. This effort was largely successful, if you measure "success" by the number of humans now alive times the years they live. There is incomparably more human life today than ever before.

But now the behaviors and habits of mind which produced this great achievement have suddenly, in just the past 20 years, come to threaten life. The human psyche has been unable to adapt to this sudden change. Humans hope to maintain their present way of life, not yet understanding that they can no longer live as they have. The issue is not whether their standard of living will fall dramatically. It will. The real question is whether they can weather falling living standards while generating enough investment in renewable energy both to transform their economies and preserve their biosphere.

So you are saying that America—and all of humanity—faces challenges that have no precedent. Is there any great power that has ever corrected itself when faced with such problems?

See more stories tagged with: environment, economy, global warming, oceans, collapse, biosphere, planetary destruction

Fred Branfman is a writer, public policy activist, spiritual seeker and student of psychology. While directing Rebuild America in Washington, D.C., from 1987 to 1991, Branfman wrote “An Investment Economics for the Year 2000” and “Industry-led Strategy.” He wrote the “strategic investment initiative” for U.S. Sen. Gary Hart’s mid-1980s run for president. As a Cabinet-level aide for California’s then-Gov. Jerry Brown, he wrote the “Investment in High Technology” and “Investment in People” state-of-the-state initiatives. He also promoted renewable energy while directing Protecting Future Generations in the mid-1990s, and authored the state of California’s SolarCal strategy and “Jobs From the Sun” in 1979 while with the Campaign for Economic Democracy.

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