Monday 12 August 2019

"Ecological grief"

From The Guardian:

The climate crisis is causing unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety to people in Greenland who are struggling to reconcile the traumatic impact of global heating with their traditional way of life...

According to its lead author, Kelton Minor... “The Arctic is a bellwether for the unequal impact of global warming on social and economic systems. As countries struggle to limit future risks and overall warming to 1.5C [an increase of 2.7F], many Arctic and Greenlandic residents are already living in regional climates that have changed by more than this, in less than a lifetime."


Okay.

First it was the polar bears, but it turned out that their numbers were stable or rising, so then the new poster boys of climate change were people on low lying Pacific islands, but it turned out that some islands were just sinking (returning whence they came), rather than the sea level actually  rising.

So now they've gone on the opposite tack again.

Funny how climate change only affects remote and small populations, where the man in the street has no way of verifying this one way or another.

3 comments:

Robin Smith said...

It's just the modern day world view, needing an end of time scenario and corresponding messaiah. This is always the way it's been. No one realises it because it's a fact of the collective unconscious. Unlimit your Milind and recognise the fact.

Bayard said...

"struggling to reconcile the traumatic impact of global heating with their traditional way of life"

which has got to be better than "dying", which is what they would be if it was getting colder.

Mark Wadsworth said...

RS, that is quite true. Bayard made a similar comment recently and it's something I ought to write up properly.

B, exactly.