At this point, we must stop playing games and admit, the worst that could happen as a consequence of rapid climate change is going to happen. There are no signs in the world that at all indicate that this conclusion is unreasonable or fantastic. And it's not just climate deniers. It is American consumers. They refuse to change. Change for them is unimaginable. Indeed, they exactly want more of what is making the current and already dire situation worse.
For example, the reporting on the crisis at General Motors has focused on the loss of jobs in North America. This means much of political energy will be spent in this direction: jobs. It will come down to labor versus fat cats. This is the leftist story of Roger and Me. We will soon hear about jobs being cut as bonuses are awarded. We already know that company is still making a profit. It's cutting jobs during the good times. That sort of thing will consume much of mainstream media's time. But the really bad news is that GM plans to expand its production of massive, gas guzzling vehicles: SUVs and Trucks. Why? Because there is a high demand for them.
AP reports that the layoffs represent a restructuring of the company that corresponds with a North American auto market that has, over the years, experienced a decline in demand for cars and an increase in that for SUVs and trucks. "In October, almost 65 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. were trucks or SUVs. It was about 50 percent cars just five years ago." Falling oil prices (thanks to President T) will only make these kinds of expensive vehicles more attractive.
Not long before he died in 1941, the Jewish German philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote: “Marx says that revolutions are the locomotives of world history. But the situation may be quite different. Perhaps revolutions are not the train ride, but the human race grabbing for the emergency brake.” There is no emergency brake available for this coming catastrophe. We must now learn to live with a clear sense of no hope, an emotion which is opposite to fear. The former, as the 17th-century Dutch Jewish philosopher Spinoza points out in the emotional section of the Ethics, is between confidence and fear; the latter is between hope and despair. We are now only left with despair, and we must be honest about this, and live with the fact. There is no way of stopping the catastrophe into whose twilight we long entered. In the dead of this kind of night, we will need philosophers and poets more than scientists. For philosophy at its best shows us how to expire calmly. We must learn to chastise those who cry and scream about the inevitable extinction of so much life on earth with these words: "You, really! Where is thy philosophy?"
