Tags
disaster, Environment, future, global warming, greenhouse gases, groupthink, Health, pollution, population, solutions, sustainability
All of the ecology pundits are saying the same thing. — Is it GROUPTHINK ? They are all saying that global warming is being caused by greenhouse gases and these are being created by us industrialized humans. This last month I have attended numerous lectures, read several books, watched a small batch of movies on those general subjects. There has been the opportunity to talk personally with several of the most informed high level people in this general field, and I came away saddened. I am feeling sad because they were all hopeful. They were feeling hopeful because they believed they were doing a good job, and that real workable solutions were just over the horizon. They all acknowledged that CO2 was causing global warming, and that CO2 concentrations were climbing rapidly, and at a steady rate, and that many new causes of increased CO2 production were coming into being as major countries are becoming industrialized. They acknowledge that changing your light bulbs to compact fluorescent isn’t going to save the world, that becoming a vegetarian, or at least not eating beef, will be as beneficial as driving a semi-electric Prius instead of a gas destroying Hummer, but those things, although helpful, won’t stop the problem. In fact if every one of the suggested patches were implemented it wouldn’t stop the problem. And it is impossible for even most of these solutions to be even half way implemented.
What I think is — that unless the CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere is quickly reversed, and brought back to 1800 levels or even lower there will be a total meltdown of the ice packs over the next couple of hundred years. Every graph presented was catastrophic if it went to the year 2100. That really isn’t such a long time if you are thinking geologically – and this is a geological problem.
No one, well not many, wants go live like the one billion people lived in 1800, because by our standards their lives were nasty, brutish and short. They didn’t have any of the necessities of life like High Def TV, weekend vacations in Paris, Wikipedia or even a fast internet. They didn’t even have cures for any diseases, reliable food without rot, sewers to carry away disease, or even police you could call when you needed help. But, these people in 1800 did have one advantage, they were living in a sustainable balance with nature. – How many people can the Earth sustain permanently
—–Irving Janis devised eight symptoms that are indicative of groupthink (1977). Quote from The free dictionary.
- Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.
- Rationalising warnings that might challenge the group’s assumptions.
- Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.
- Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil or stupid.
- Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of “disloyalty”.
- Self censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.
- Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.
- Mindguards — self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.
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