Yelling Fire in a Crowded Room
Or How to Become a Climate Hero
Climate Change Editorial by Marnie Parker
Published 9/9/2011
Being an environmentalist (or environmentally concerned person1) these days is like standing in a burning building wanting to yell fire so everyone can get out. Only there’s nowhere to go. There are just a few wisps of smoke at the moment, and the building is going take two weeks to burn down. But, still, it is burning, and you know it is, and you want to warn people – you want to do something about it.
You want to stand up in the middle of church services and yell, “Fire!” You want to stand up in the middle of a classroom and yell, “Fire!” You want to stand up in the middle of office cubicles and yell, “Fire!” You want to stand in the middle of the local supermarket and yell, “Fire!” The pressing urgency to warn your loved ones, everyone, is sometimes all you can think about. You want to stand up, wave your arms around, and yell at the top of your lungs, “Fire!!! Get out! Save yourselves!”
So how come we aren’t doing exactly that? Well, believe it or not, we are.
The building is, of course, the earth. The fire is global warming that leads to climate change (extreme hot and cold, wet and dry, ice caps melting, sea level rising, stronger storms, etc.). The two weeks is about two hundred2 years. The out, well, there is no real out considering we don’t have space travel yet and can’t migrate to another planet. So the only out is reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere -- reducing humanity’s entire carbon footprint. Admittedly, a rather daunting task.
You’ve been hearing this for a while. And two hundred years sounds like the distant future, doesn’t it? Well, unless you have children and/or grandchildren. Then you realize it might only be three generations until the earth becomes uninhabitable, maybe four. And, well, uh… it is already day 2 or 3 of the two weeks before the building burns down completely. It’s not next year it will START burning. It’s not next month it will START burning. It’s not next week it will START burning. It has ALREADY started and it’s day 2 or 3. There is no more time to debate about yelling,
“FIRE!”
So we’re waving our arms around and yelling. Why aren’t people hearing us?
Well, you’re listening, because you’re reading this, and this editorial is addressed to you. I presume you know some or most of this already, but let’s briefly recap.
First, some people simply aren’t listening. It is like they have stuck their fingers in their ears while childishly chanting, “Nyah, nyah, nyah,” at the same time. They don’t WANT to hear it -- usually for religious and/or political reasons.
(If you feel you can handle it and want to skip over the "gentle lead-in" to the bad news on climate change, you can jump to Part II now. Although I recommend reading the excerpt, "Becoming a Climate Hero," at the end of this part. And I hope you come back to read the rest of Part I later.)
