There was a news article about clouds last night: it said that there were ongoing discussions about whether climate change would lead to an increase in low level clouds or high level clouds, and that far more work was required to calculate what the impact would be in causing further heating, or perhaps some cooling.

There was a news article about clouds last night: it said that there were ongoing discussions about whether climate change…am I repeating myself here? Did you notice where I stopped?

The climate is changing. Why are we getting so hung up on details? The more emissions are reduced, the better. The less forest we cut down, the better. The less land we cultivate, the better. Three pillars of climate change prevention — simple. But governments, and especially the corporations behind them, love all this fiddling about while the planet burns, because it buys them more time to make money, to attain power, to enjoy the superficial joy that the ownership of stuff provides. Mere life…overrated.

Except I love life — it’s everything to me.

Do you have children, or do you know any children you really care about? Suppose one of those children was crossing the road, and a car turned the corner. The vehicle is approaching quickly; out of the corner of his eye, the driver has just seen the child. The driver starts to make calculations — how fast is he travelling; how much distance is there between his vehicle and the child; how long will it take him to stop; how much damage will…

The child is thrown across the road by the impact of the vehicle.

Her heart stopped beating in the ambulance. Her parents never understood why the driver didn’t stop?

There are some situations where you don’t have time to work out the details — you just do what is right. You slam on the brakes because the sooner you do it, the better the chance that you will avoid hitting the child in front of you. You stop producing greenhouse gases and destroying the fabric of nature because the sooner you do it, the better the chance that the Earth will be able to recover from the changes that are taking place.

You don’t think about the details: you act immediately.