The concept of the boiling frog as a metaphor for the human behavior regarding climate change seems to be gaining popularity all the time. The image above is reproduced from "Skeptical Science"
The boiling frog also originated the name of this blog: "The frog that jumped out". Thinking about that, however, we may have a small problem: where do we exactly jump to?
No problem! In a short time the frogs will be met.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=470690489693872&l=956c214bba
Exactly ! That's where the metaphor ends. Nowhere to jump to, and nowhere else to run to either. But if enough people can manage to jump out of the various intellectual traps (and there are many and of different kinds) (and also jump out in the right ways and without jumping into other new traps) then perhaps enough practical actions might be implemented to make it un-necessary to move to Mars. (which seems to be another new trap at least for some)
ReplyDeleteI have a good friend who is very interested in "exoplanets", "other worlds" and parallel universes (all legitimate interests) but tacitly also in the possibility of moving there as a possible "solution" to the fact that THIS planet may become un-inhabitable.
In our friendly arguments he concedes the fact that this might take "a while" so I have been trying to bring him back to a concern for "reality" (the one of this planet) since if this planet falls apart in the next one hundred years we won't have the ability or the capacities to move anywhere else.
So in the course of our friendly arguments I have been saying to him "let's first save this planet's biosphere" (and ourselves with it) and then perhaps use it as base to move to other planets within about another million years. (if outside this solar system, though perhaps only a couple of hundred years if we are going to move wholesale to Mars)
To me "jumping out of the pot" ....means basically jumping out of the BAU) (the business as usual political, economic and social and cultural.... ideological and institutional paradigms) but since we can't jump to an exoplanet or to Mars (at least not for the time being)..."jumping out" must by necessity include: a) envisioning a new NON-BAU set of paradigms and b) figuring out practical ways to go from the current BAU to the new paradigms.
And thus far some of the visions are there (but there are several and there is no clear agreement as to which ones might be preferable) but the practical ways forward (implemented policies, measures and programs by various groups of current earthly actors) to get there remain far too unclear and not nearly specific enough to be either credible let alone implementable.
What will be the topics of your Podcast with doomsteaddinner? Can we make some Casandra Blog in German? German's are so Techno fix believers I want to translate some of your work into my Austrian Blog? Done it with Orlov's work already...
ReplyDeleteCatastrophe, doom, end of the world, collapse, varied destruction, fire raining from the sky, frogs sprouting alive from your socks.... :-)
DeleteIf you like to translate my post, it is a honor! Thanks