Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Global Warming: Here's a better story

I think we need to change the story we are using to solve the anthropogenic climate change (ACC), global warming problem.  What do I mean?  Well, a story needs:

  • A good problem or conflict to resolve
  • A character that:
    • We can identify with 
    • Who ends up being the hero that solves the problem
    • Who grows and learns about themselves in the process
  • The story needs to be believable, credible.
What is the ACC story?

We are facing the worst ecological disaster since the extinction of the dinosaurs.  People caused this by our reckless burning of fossil fuels.  People must give up driving cars and all modern conveniences and become vegans in order to stop the disaster.  We also need to give politicians more power so they can be the heroes.
Not a very fun or engaging story.  It reads more like a sad tragedy or horror.  The failures are:
  1.  A character we can't and don't want to identify with.
  2. Our character isn't the hero.
  3. We didn't learn anything good about ourselves.
  4. There's not a credible hero or solution to the problem.  
  5. The conflict seems exaggerated since it puts all blame on humans leaving out other causes such as the earth being in a 400+ years of thawing since the last ice age, polar bear deaths are due to hunting for population control, etc.  You can read my previous post here on these facts.

Here's a better story:

As our population grows and third world countries rise above poverty, our resources will need to be shared more effectively.  This includes food (from farms and fishing), fresh water, raw materials (metal, plastic, wood, etc.)  As always, we find a way to adapt.  This includes sustainable processes, new technologies, new economies, open scientific exploration and understanding of the problem, etc.  Through this transformation we realize that mankind has been continually evolving, from hunter gatherer, to farmer, to cities; traveling on foot, then on beast, then on machine.  As borders disappear due to cities overlapping, continued legal migration, the Internet and social media, we learn that greater collaboration is needed.  
Why is it better?
  1. We can better identify with the character.
  2. The hero actively solves the problem.
  3. The hero grows and learns about themselves.
  4. The story is more believable because we are addressing current observable trends instead of a future calamity predicted by a computer model. 
This second story may not be perfect; but I prefer it over the current (first) story and I think it has a greater chance of actually saving the world.

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