Does the world suffer from an intellectual meltdown?

Translation of contribution by Evert Andersson©2019

Why did we stop questioning?

Climate Friday. Choirs sing for the climate. Global climate strike for the future.

Teachers’ magazine with a debate article, which states that students should be allowed to strike from school for the climate.

A church congregation that encourages climate change.

Everyone calls for the politicians to do something.

What is less clear and probably they have neither deeper knowledge in climate science nor how the society they wish to see will be in reality.

Like the entire establishment in politics and the media, they assume that they are largely unanimous, that there is broadly consensus  in the research community about threatening catastrophic climate change. The weaker the arguments, the higher the tone will be. And emotions get to control. You want to belong to the good side.

The phenomenon of Greta has the greatest impact and inspires several of the aforementioned. It would be strange to me to bully  a child. Unlike many in Greta Thunberg’s surroundings, she is completely and totally honest in her intent. However, a legitimate question is how the circus around her is possible.Who believes that Arnold Schwarzenegger, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker or alarmist Al Gore is so greatly impressed by her knowledge when she teaches them to the TV cameras? Greta has become a phenomenon and it benefits their agenda to be seen together with her. It is not possible to claim anything other than that a child is totally exploited. No matter how voluntary she may be and with the support of her family. Hope she doesn’t hurt.

It is difficult to reach out with a more sensible message in the media. A bunch of middle-aged white men with placards, who urge the public to wake up , does not raise any emotional storms. And probably no support from any entrepreneur like Ingmar Rentzhog either.Nevertheless, we should think about how we managed this long. The UN man Maurice Strong already said in 1972 that we have ten years to prevent the climate catastrophe. Now 2019, forty six years and a number of alarm reports later, we are told we have twelve years.

Group pressure and group thinking are psychological concepts. In their extreme expressions, they can get usually wise and educated people to act idiotically. (Compare the Macchiarini scandal). Acting against peer pressure requires courage and integrity. It is difficult and costly to break. Both for researchers, politicians and media people.The UN is hardly known to succeed in its core missions. Every report from the UN Climate Panel (IPCC) has a politically negotiated Summary for Policy  Makers. It also includes an information strategy that covers everything from elementary school to universities, the media, the public and politics. This is precisely a task they have succeeded to the extent that there is now a concept such as climate anxiety. It affects children and youth most. The basis of the phenomenon of Greta’s enormous impact.

Read the article in Teachers’ newspaper and be horrified. There are three teachers behind the debate article. However, if it reflects how it stands at school, there is reason to be concerned. Intellectual meltdown appears as a relevant description. Meltdown defined as starting something that you cannot stop when it has gone out of control.

Evert Andersson

3 Comments

  1. Andrew Roman

    We are long past science, and into political theatre. The audience in this theatre is now most of the governments on the planet, and many citizens of these countries.

    The actors on stage are self-cast ecocelebrities like Al Gore, Greta Thunberg and António Guterres along with lesser known leaders of eco NGOs. The play dramatizes a frightening, tragic ending for all humankind, with the script allegedly written by scientists, 97% of whom agree on the lines in the script. If you participate on stage you can also become an instant celebrity, like Greta, provided that you out-panic almost everyone else. And the actors are well rewarded, with Nobel prizes, global fame and adoration, and for some, lots of money.

    This theatre has become addictive for a mass audience. It plays to a very human fear: fear of loss of control over our lives and those of our children and grandchildren, through climate change making the planet uninhabitable. Armageddon. Climate change that will cause mass starvation through drought, mass deaths through heat waves, hurricanes and rapid sea level rise. To be or not to be; that is once again the question, but on a planetary scale.

    Politicians running in Canada’s forthcoming election cannot ignore the popularity of this theatre. On June 17, 2019 the House of Commons declared a National Climate Emergency. All political parties have had to offer their own climate change plans under which Canada will save the planet, regardless of what other nations do or don’t do. Of course the political parties offer no timelines or costs or other details for these plans, but each insists that their plan is better than the others.

    It will take a long time before the curtain falls on this play.

  2. Cody Reed

    If ½ of the US CO2 production in 2019 was used to make Diamonds that would give us
    128,250 Diamonds
    (in March 2022 USD) $820,543,500
    160,312.5 years’ or 2,081.98 lifetimes worth sucked out of the air per year
    With 0% increase in production that would take 4,007,812.5 years of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in 25 years.
    52,049.51 lifetimes in 25 years

    the same company would also make:

    (in March 2022 USD) $20,513,587,500
    https://aetherdiamonds.com/products/ascent-solitaire-diamond-ring

    this is only accounting for us production of co2 in 2019, not world wide.
    this company is nefarious

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