Climate emergency: world 'may have crossed tipping points'

[Boomer]

7. The lizard brain is already occupied

Humans are wired to react to what is front of us, the visceral threats, and far less so to conceptual threats that require uncomfortable, disruptive action. As the world's oligarchs suck wealth out of the global economy, the common person is focused on getting their family through today with food on the table and a roof over their heads. Making yet more sacrifices for a day "sometime" in the future just doesn't connect to people's sense of urgency. Urgent issues are where they're going to find $300 to fix the water pump in their car so they can get to work tomorrow and not lose their job.

It's easy for me -- with a comfortable bank account, a full-time job and excellent medical benefits -- to be concerned about the fate of human kind (I'm actually more worried about all the other species, but for the sake of argument, let's pretend I care what happens to people, too). My daily emergencies are easily handled; I have the luxury to lift my eyes to the horizon and contemplate the long game. I have a college-education and a life-long interest in science so that reading the climate change literature is something I enjoy (morbid pleasures?) and I trust my evaluation of its validity. And finally, as a childless woman reaching retirement age, I have the time to read about it every single day. I've been doing that for about 20 years, and I can see the progression and make some educated projections of where we're going (nowhere good).