Monday, April 07, 2014

Years of Living Dangerously

This guy directed the two most successful films in the history of the world. Now he's made it clear that the biggest story of our time is climate change. Not enough people care about it, and he wants to change this. And he has some very big names to help him. 

The first of James Cameron's nine-part series on climate change was released freely on Youtube yesterday. Here it is:

Not enough people care about it... because we think it's someone else's problem; or because we think it's something for people with a particular interest; or because we think it can't be that serious; or because we think that governments will sort it out; or because we think our own life/work/family is all we can face; or because we just want to focus on things that seem light or positive or cultured or grounded and this doesn't look like what we had in mind; or because it seems scary.

Or whatever reason. They're all false and they're all fake.

We don't need to keep up these kinds of self-imposed limits on our imagination and on our perspective. Let's start living on the planet that's really there.


Anonymous said...

What do you mean by "most successful films in the history of the world"? Those that brought in the most money? :-)

Bob said...

That is what that phrase is generally considered to mean, yes. And to state the obvious: this does not imply that I consider box office success to be the best measure of a film's value.

Unknown said...

Hey Bob,
I think you're correct about the lack of interest in climate change. I am putting this in very simple terms. "Scary"
is also correct, possibly for the majority. Powerless.
People who are afraid, that does put you at a real disadvantage because you are splitting your attention.
Simple enough?
We have the tech to create balance. Fact. Where do you think that could be Bob?

Bob said...

You're right - we have plenty of tech. We've had the tech for decades, and it's getting better all the time. Technology, on its own, doesn't change anything - change comes from demand. From people.

If we understand the need for change, if we want things to change, if we are willing to shift our economic activity from old, polluting tech to new, clean tech, if we insist on leaders who understand and value and will fight for the future, then change will come.

In reality, it isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of how quickly... the longer it takes us to change, the more of the life-support systems of the planet we will destroy before we get there. The more we understand, communicate and demand change now, the more real, sustainable opportunities we will have.

Here's some good reading.

Anonymous said...

ah your treatise on Nassim was reasonable and hard headed. Then you let me down by actually swallowing this global warming fraud.

Bob said...

That's because I'm interested in understanding the world as it actually is. If you're attached to a narrative that involves denial of some of the most basic laws of physics, then I've no reason to value your opinion.

It's so easy now to challenge your own ideas about climate change, so easy to ask yourself "does what I believe actually stand up to scrutiny and any kind of depth of understanding", to do the kind of research that tests your own ideas rather than just confirms your narrative, so easy to get access to facts, information, simple explainers by any of the major scientific institutions of the world, any of the meteorological associations, even NASA and the US military. There's just no excuse for the "global warming fraud" narrative any more, apart from pure stone age block-headedness. It's pathetic.

Anonymous said...

It's a nice movie. I know how to resolve the problem of global warming and climate change. The conflict between society and nature is not because we perceive responsibility as private or individual but because we are not living in a true society yet. Our society is heartless; it neither feels its citizens nor the biosphere, of which it is a part. We need spirituality to catch up, slow down all technological progress, slow down science, slow down materialism, and embrace emotional economy:

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