Civilizations over the past 6,000 years have unfailingly squandered their futures through acts of colossal stupidity and hubris. We are probably not an exception. The worse it gets, the more the people will lie to themselves and the more they will want to be lied to. For many reality is often too painful to confront; they would rather retreat into what anthropologists call “crisis cults,” which promise the return of a lost world through magical beliefs.
“The most significant characteristic of modern civilization is the sacrifice of the future for the present,” philosopher and psychologist William James wrote. You can either believe the scientific consensus or believe dissenting scientists. I hope the few in the latter category are correct but I suspect those that predict that cities across the globe, including London, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Lagos, Copenhagen, New Orleans, San Francisco, Savannah, Ga., and New York, will become modern-day versions of Atlantis, along with countries such as Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands and large parts of New Zealand and Australia, are correct, but I would be very happy if this was wrong. There are 90 coastal cities in the U.S. that endure chronic flooding, a number that is expected to double in the next two decades. It is difficult to see how many National economies will not go into tailspins as wider and wider parts of the globe suffer catastrophic systems breakdown. Of course Covid19 may itself cause economic tailspins, at least in the west or maybe even positive change, who knows, but most of the research I have scanned is far from rosy and if anything we are not getting a candid picture of what is coming down the track!.