"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors."

-Jonas Salk

Sunday, December 12, 2010

On Happy Endings

There's an interesting reply to my recent article "Eye-Opening Videos" which was carried at The Energy Collective. You will recall that I quoted Bill McKibben saying "There's no happy ending where we prevent climate change anymore."

David Lewis begins his reply "So the 'there's no longer a happy ending' thing seems to be a necessary stage for people to get through if they want to see this problem clearly." He has an interesting perspective and adds some very relevant history.
McKibben in the video link brought up analogies from WWII. I think that period shows us how this will play out. Too many now think you can pretend basic physical laws governing the behavior of the planetary system can be ignored or appeased in the way people pre WWII thought they could appease Hitler. McKibben: "thank god there were some Winston Churchill's around". I wonder. Churchill was a voice in the wilderness but they didn't turn to him until circumstances brought it home to everyone that Churchill had been seeing the issue with more clarity than most others.
I strongly recommend reading it. Follow-up comments there, please.