A few days ago in 4361 - Morning At The Coast III I talked about the culture of reality denial that’s fueled by populism. Got a complicated problem? Just pretend it’s not there.
Of course denying facts does not simply make them go away. You can do it, but only for so long. Normally reality finds its way back to us.
Imagine my surprise when I found this article. Well, it’s the Washington Post and the source alone will make it incredible for a certain kind of Trump believers. But that’s not the point.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states in a leaked draft of an Environmental Impact Statement that human-made climate change is going to have a much higher impact, than any part of the Trump Administration has ever admitted. They also seem to say (I haven’t completely read and far less analysed the paper; I just quote the WP) that it’s too late anyway, and that therefore the lowering of environmental standards does not do additional harm.
Is this good? Is this bad? I think it may be a first step in the right direction. Currently the Fundamentalists and Apocalyptics may rule, and they may believe that they’ll be among the 144 thousand who God will save anyway, but hopefully among Trump’s voters a certain feeling will develop, that mathematically they have a tiny problem: 144 thousand won’t suffice to save all their lot.
Fear might finally do the thing. I mean, it works with fear of migrants, why shouldn’t it also work with fear of drowning? A few more once-in-a-lifetime experiences will make it much harder to ignore reality.
And then, maybe, there will be a point when people get back to being constructive. Sure, precious time will have been wasted, but this seems to be the fate of our species. We’re always trying the cheap way out first.
By the way: I’ve taken this image immediately after I bought a new lens, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm F4.0 IS Pro 😃