Risk ‘misunderestimated’  War, sleeping pills, and the Extinction Rebellion

By Kurt Cobb, originally published by Resource Insights

May 5, 2019

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-05-05/risk-misunderestimated-war-sleeping-pills-and-the-extinction-rebellion/

“How is it that the awareness of risk has become so blunted among so much of the world’s population?”

Exactly, we are like a frog in a pot of water that has gone sleepy whilst the water is steadily headed toward the boil.  Will we jump out in time or not?  That is the critical question we must answer.

“It also seems plausible that the infrastructure we have built—dams, reservoirs, roads, electric grids, seawalls, water systems, and other industrial and agricultural systems—will not withstand intact the heat, drought, floods, sea level rise, severe weather and other problems that unchecked climate change will bring with it. At the very least, we are unlikely to be able to reliably grow enough food to feed all of us.

How is it that the awareness of risk has become so blunted among so much of the world’s population? Of course, for the poorest among us—those who barely make it from one day to the next—risk is immediate, personal and abundantly clear. Lack of food, shelter, medical care and protection from violence are existential questions that command attention.”