The solution will not come from What Is, but from What Can Be

My brother-in-law is a sustainability policy wonk, he’s good at it too.  He’s been doing it for many years and he’s really thought through all the practical solutions for arresting climate change.

But as he describes everything it becomes painfully evident that we’re not going to be able to solve this in time.  The way our government is set up completely favors the fossil fuel industry.  The game is rigged and we don’t stand a chance. “We’re doomed”, by brother-in-law acknowledges.  There’s nothing we can do to stop it in time.

But we’re talking about the fate of the world here!  The collapse of every ecosystem known to man.  Politics as usual must not apply here. So clearly we need a massive popular movement to stand up and save civilization.  But there is no such movement.  People just don’t care that much.  How the hell do we get past that?!

For one thing there are two vehicles that drive public opinion: the media and the arts. 

The media is dropping the ball big-time here.  They just aren’t covering how bad this is going to be.  They’re completely ignoring their responsibility.  So clearly we have to go all out to get them to pay attention before it’s too late. 

Artists can have a huge impact on all of this if the artists are moved to do it.  Think of the anti-war movement of the 1960's and how many of the popular songs spoke out against war.  We gotta do that again!  The arts have to be a big part of this. 

Politics as usual is not going to be enough at all, and anybody who looks at solving climate change through the prism of what is doomed to fail.  We have to look at climate change through the prism of what can be and get to work on making that happen.

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