talk or die
“How 'bout a shot of truth in that denial cocktail?” ― Jennifer Salaiz
You’d think we’d be talking about this every day….
...this impending ecological collapse, this relentless degradation of the biosphere, this "toxification of the entire planet" as ecologist Paul Ehrlich put it. Our future is in immediate, urgent peril; ecosystems around the globe are teetering on the brink and some are already in the early stages of collapse. This, we might imagine, would be the dominant talking point of nearly every conversation in every setting.
But no, we try not to bring it up, not in polite company anyway. Not in any substantive way. Best to steer clear of reality altogether. It's just too depressing, too complicated, too heavy. It's OK to talk about sports and stock options and real estate, and it's OK to ask "How are things going at work?" We can talk about people that we know, our families and our friends.
But whatever you do, don't talk about the weather. (This might seem like safe, neutral ground, but it's fraught with peril because climate is never far away.) Above all, don't be a buzzkill. Don't be a downer. Don't bring up religion, politics and especially, the state of the planet. Better to pretend that everything is going to be OK. And whatever you do, don't invite Greta Thunberg to your party. She's the worst!
It is OK to talk about "bright green" solutions of course. "Hey, did you hear, my neighbor just bought a Tesla?" "That's so awesome...no emissions... it's our clean green future." OK, but be sure not to talk about the impact of "green" automobiles: the strip mining that's required for lithium batteries or the fact that they can't be recycled. Likewise, don't talk about the polluting industries that are required for solar panels. Don't talk about the fact that windmill blades wear out and can't be recycled. And above all, don't talk about the carrying capacity of the planet, species extinction, habitat destruction and the fact that there are simply too many people. Just keep it light, keep it funny and ignore the rest. This is a party, remember?
But here's the reality: the elephant in the room is going to kill us. To be precise, it's going to make vast regions of our planet uninhabitable. It may not kill you today or tomorrow, but there's an enormous likelihood that it'll kill our descendants, which is to say, our children and grandchildren. And even if our children don't perish outright, they may well live lives of desperation: According to one projection, the dominant occupation over the next century will be building sea walls around low-lying cities–not exactly a promising, fulfilling career path. And yet, we're not supposed to talk about any of this? Pretend that it doesn't exist or that someone else will take care of it?
Denial is a funny thing. As with most things in modern culture, we're quick to focus on the individual. Denial is a personality flaw of a particular person–an alcoholic neighbor, an abusive friend or someone in the family. But have you noticed that it's always someone else? It's always other people. In other words, we're particularly adept at denying our own denial.
Denial is individual, but it's also cultural. Entire societies can fall into a state of willful blindness, a conspiracy of silence around things we find upsetting. If it's challenging, just talk about something else. Which is precisely where we find ourselves today. Modern culture now resembles a vast game of "let's pretend," a childhood fantasy in which–if we just hope hard enough–everything is going to be OK.
To be sure, we do talk about the technical details of carbon and renewables and solar panels, the Green New Deal and all the rest. Major news organizations are quick to tell us about any new "green" fix that appears on the horizon. But even this is a form of denial, because ultimately, our problem is not technical. It's a relationship problem, a cultural problem and a problem of the human imagination. And this is something almost no one is talking about.
In the end, talking won't kill us, but not talking surely will. So it's your choice: Talk or die.
And yes, I will be coming to your party and I'll be bringing a date. Her name is Greta.