Where Not-Enough Gets Us
Clinging to our luxuries will cost us our future.
A lot of people want to do the right thing for the climate. They’re worrying. They’re right to. It’s hard to ignore, and the more you learn, the worse it looks.
So we’re doing things about it. Everywhere you turn, some-but-not-all people are taking measures to reduce their emissions. They’re reducing the amount of meat they eat or turning the thermostats down or investing in solar panels for their homes, if they’re economically privileged enough to do the latter without help — which governments could easily provide, but don’t.
I smile every time I see someone making an effort.
But there’s one thing that, by and large, we are very definitely not doing:
Enough.
Imagine the climate catastrophe we’re creating for ourselves is a ticking time bomb, and the increasingly urgent calls for action from climate scientists are an attempt to defuse it. When you try to defuse a bomb, getting it 99% right gives you the same result as getting it zero percent right. Get through all the steps but one before the clock runs out, and it’s still kaboom. Close simply isn’t good enough. There is no consolation prize for getting close.
