The planet that cried wolf

Do you remember the story you were told as a child called “the boy who cried wolf?” This may be peculiar to European culture, so for those unfamiliar with it, here’s the brief version:

• boy is mischievous
• boy plays a joke on the townsfolk calling out “wolf”
• boy does this several times & laughs at the townsfolk
• one day the wolf actually does turn up
• the boy is alone & cries wolf again
• no one comes to his aid, believing it to be another prank
• the boy dies

So the moral of the story is not to bullshit about serious things.

Which is a great (but unfortunate) analogy to the modern world & the situation we’re in, because here’s the real world version:

• Religion cries “Armageddon” but it doesn’t occur
• Religion cries “devil” but no Devil appears
• Religion cries “angels” but no angels appear
• Religion cries “god(s)” but no god(s) appear
• Capitalism cries “we’ll go broke” but they don’t go broke
• Capitalism cries “disaster” and you buy their product
• Capitalism cries “problem” and you buy their product
• Capitalism bribes science to cry “threat” and you buy their product
• Politicians cry “terrorist” and talk you into war
• Politicians cry “bludger” and get you to persecute the vulnerable
• Politicians cry “fiscal responsibility” then hand your $ to the rich

… so people get tired of all these calamities threats & lies, all of which are just to get you to buy their agenda … and where a threat “seems” to be true, it turns out later to have been a fabrication, a deception.

SO … when science is bribed (many years ago) to exaggerate what it “knew” with certainty at the time (regardless of whether it was actually an exaggeration or not – we’re just talking perception & actual evidence here), it did the immense damage of making a bunch of people think that the WHOLE story was just another lie … but this was not the case.

The “story” here is the present ecological catastrophe of Earth.

• Some people don’t believe there’s a problem at all, either because they don’t understand the science, are suspicious of the science, or believe it to be part of another deception for profit;
• Some people were and are involved in such deceptions, and they don’t seem to grasp the difference between their exaggeration & bias of presentation of facts (plus fabrications), versus the things that are actually true regardless of their agenda & deception … so they mistakenly believe themselves to be “in the know” about the reality, when in fact they are the most deceived of all.

So here we are, with independent science telling us that climate change is happening, pollution is happening, habitat destruction is happening, species extinction is happening, and entire ecosystem collapse is happening … BUT … as most people are largely scientifically illiterate, they don’t know what to believe.

The variation here on the boy who cried wolf theme, is that in our case, when the wolf finally does arrive, it is not our original pranksters doing the crying out, it’s someone else … but they’re believed to be just another prankster with an agenda.

HOW DO WE SOLVE THIS DILEMMA?

1. Recognise that the consequences of failure here will affect EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING, and therefore it cannot be ignored … because you will not escape the consequences either if it turns out to be true after all;
2. LEARN ABOUT ARGUMENT REASON LOGICAL MATHS & SCIENCE … because science is not like religion, you’re supposed to question it, not just blindly accept it as a source of authority;
3. GATHER YOUR DATA & OBSERVATIONS;
4. ANALYSE YOUR DATA & OBSERVATIONS;
5. TEST YOUR CONCLUSIONS.

MY OWN CONCLUSION:

There may be SOME deceptions going on, BUT:

• Since the industrial revolution, our technological capacity for resource exploitation has grown exponentially;
• Since the industrial revolution, our thirst / motivations for resource exploitation have grown exponentially;
• Since the industrial revolution our population has grown exponentially AND our lifespan has extended significantly …
• AND IF YOU DOUBT THAT ALMOST 8 BILLION PEOPLE armed with high technology, and motivated by a dysfunctional economic paradigm based on debt & infinite growth, can do significant damage to an entire biosphere … you really need to think about this a lot deeper, because you’re very much mistaken, we can and have;
• THE REASON WE DIDN’T UNIVERSALLY NOTICE THE DAMAGE EARLIER was also partly because the planet is so large, its resources so vast, and its capacity for renewal so robust: it took this long to deplete those resources, and damage that capacity for renewal … but from here on in, we can no longer afford foolish, selfish, scientifically illiterate & stupid leaders, nor their decision.