What Will It Take? Dark Days Ahead.

I began writing a novel about what I thought was going to happen as the planet warmed, in particular that young people were going to do something about the failure of government to solve the problem. I devised a plot where some young people develop a bacteria (which actually does exist) that eats oil and destroy oil fields.  Nothing like that has happened yet, but I've noted in the past people who've attacked oil pipelines.

But something more is beginning to happen which I've anticipated.  These days seem dark because of

 Extinction Rebellion’s ‘blood protest’ outside the Treasury last week. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters 

Donald Trump's imminent impeachment, but much darker days are ahead.  I've posted over the years about the growing threat of global warming and it seems hardly necessary to continue to bring the awareness of this to people, though let me keep you up to date, here, here, and here, and that's just a sample of what is happening right now.

But now an escalation of the anger of young people at the lack of the effort to prevent the worst is occurring.

In the last week alone, members of Extinction Rebellion have been described as ecomaniacs (Daily Mail), ecoradicals ignoring our economic doom (Times), dangerous and a bloody mess (Daily Telegraph). They have been accused of “pulling 83,000 officers away from their normal duties” according to the police and costing Scotland Yard £16m. In London last week, dressed in funereal black, rebels tried to paint the Treasury red using 1,800 litres of fake blood and an old fire engine with a sign reading “stop funding climate death”.

While its actions may seem controversial in some quarters, Extinction Rebellion’s rise and influence have undoubtedly been extraordinary, galvanising young and old across party lines. Last October, the journalist and activist George Monbiot introduced the group in the national press, a homegrown movement “devoted to disruptive, non-violent disobedience in protest against ecological collapse”. The hope was to turn a national uprising into an international one by March. In fewer than 12 months, Extinction Rebellion has become the fastest-growing environmental organisation in the world. 

“We have seen protest movements on climate change before, but they haven’t attracted anywhere near as many people or had as much impact,” said Clare Saunders, professor in environmental politics at Exeter University. “For the first time, you have ordinary people engaging with radical action. It’s unique – I can’t think of any [protest movement] historically happening in that way.”

We should read this as the portent for the future, young people realizing that the older generations are failing them.  It's hard to think of a good word here for that failure.  It's far beyond Trumps misdeeds, it's far more than a misdeed.  What word should we have for a generation (my generation) that fails to act in the face of a planetary calamity.  The generation before me eliminated Hitler and Nazism.  What can be said about our generation letting civilization collapse?  How bad does it have to get before people begin to act?

One difference is that we don't yet have a Pearl Harbor to animate everyone.  The apocryphal story of the frog in the pot coming to a boil is relevant.  The catastrophe is moving at a very slow, unrelenting pace, and no one is able to notice that they are about to be cooked.

I believe that there will be a Pearl Harbor, I hope soon. I have posted many times that the rising sea levels threatening Miami and New Orleans would do that.  However, people, like that frog in the pot, seem to be content with the tidal floods and increasing storm surges. 

One possibility is what is happening in India and Bangladesh as a result of the melting of the Tibetan Plateau glaciers.  Hundreds of millions of people may be left without enough water to live.  Millions of lives might be threatened.

It's sad to say that it might take the loss of millions of lives to finally get our governments to act.

There is a quiet desperation and sometimes despair at how hard and possibly futile any personal effort seems in the face of the climate crisis. But those touched by Extinction Rebellion find it impossible to ignore the ways in which they are contributing to global heating. This isn’t just about recycling, switching to bamboo toothbrushes and buying in bulk; people are re-insulating their homes, dramatically scaling back family holidays to eradicate air travel and, in increasing numbers, deciding not to have children at all.

“I’m scared of my own future,” said Dahlia, a 20-year-old student at the Bristol uprising. “How could anyone think about having kids now? It’s not even just about the carbon footprint and population growth … what kind of world are you thinking they’re going to live in?”