8 Ways Climate Change Isn't Messing Around

1. Is There Anything We Can Do?

Sometimes talks about climate change can be a bit depressing. That includes this article, so here's a picture of a kitten in a hat eating a tiny ice cream.

You okay now?

Right, anyway, there's a lot of hopelessness that seems to go along with talks about climate change, but we shouldn't confuse apathy for powerlessness.

We know exactly what the causes of climate change are and how to put a stop to them, the problem is that it's just a lot of f**king bother. The aforementioned media controversy doesn't seem to help in the confusion as it makes the whole thing seem a lot more up in the air than it actually is.

This is compounded by the reluctance of any government to make the changes necessary to slow or halt climate change, because they would be so deeply unpopular with the electorate. Most of the measures would involve a hike in taxes which can't be spent on bailing out bankers and buying politicians' duck houses, making them equally unpopular with the politicians themselves.

This creates a vicious media cycle that puts waaay too much emphasis on the "evidence" against climate change and reduces it to the realms of political mud-slinging rather than an actual threat.

The real problem is that the short-term benefits of tackling climate change now are few and far between and we humans with our tiny attention spans and limited capacity for delayed gratification just don't really want to.

If you really want to believe that climate change isn't being caused by humans or fossil fuels, then there is a veritable horde of other very good reasons why we should be finding other ways to power our societies. The first of which being that fossil fuels are going to run out. When all the lights go out, the quibbling over how ugly you think wind farms are is going to look pretty damn petty.

Are you slightly more frightened now? Because if so you are experiencing the correct response to climate change.

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