Thread by @daverpvb

We live in a global, advanced technological civilization that supports nearly 8B people on this planet. "Civilization" is an abstraction. It's a framework of customs, conventions and agreements that permit the global interactions that support those nearly 8 billion people.

Abstractions are the most fragile of things. They don't exist in the world, they exist in the mind. They are ephemeral. If we destroy the abstractions that frame this civilization, then it will collapse, as all civilizations before ours have done.

Right now, those abstractions are being stressed. They're experiencing the "normal" stresses of competitive actors seeking advantage, and they're also being stressed by natural and man-made stresses in the "real" world. The pandemic is one, global warming is another.

Extreme wealth inequality is also one, along with what may be the sixth mass extinction in the loss of species and biodiversity.

We will call upon these abstractions, these customs, conventions and agreements to try and manage these stresses.

But it is unclear if they are up to the task. Faithless actors will still try to seek advantage. Some will experience internal stresses that impair the ability to comply with agreements or strengthen them. Indeed, some may be compelled to reject them, for internal purposes.

If Japan or Germany could have had a perfect glimpse of the destruction that would befall their respective nations as a result of their calculations, would they have undertaken to wage war to further their national aims?

It's an interesting question.

Although we call it a "world war," WWII was mostly a regional collapse of civilization. Globally, we were fortunate that the western hemisphere, chiefly the North American continent, was spared. There was a deep reserve of material to draw from to restore civilization globally.

That will not be the case with global warming.

Every nation will be struggling, mightily, to cope with the stresses from a warming climate. Those abstractions that are the foundation of our global civilization will not be a priority, at least not for long.

We have very little time to make a serious effort at slowing the rate of warming, and beginning to reverse it.

I don't believe it's too late. I don't believe it's hopeless. I know we're not helpless.

But we must act.

This year, like last year and the year before that, extreme weather events, enormous losses of life and property, presage the world that is to come if we do nothing.

Soon, it will be impossible to ignore what is happening; but soon, it will also be too late.

I sometimes wonder what sort of mental gymnastics Republicans and other denialists must go through when they see what his happening in the world. What future they think they're leaving to their children and grandchildren.

Perhaps they do not see at all.

Perhaps they are willfully blind, because to see is to experience remorse, regret.

I don't know. I'd say that's not my problem, but they are my problem. They are standing in the way of saving the future for MY children and grandchildren.

So, I do what I can, while I can.

I used to think I'd be dead before the worst of it happened.

Now, I'm not so sure.