Sarah,

Your questions may all be rhetorical, but here’s my answer why we’re still racing toward the cliff:

1. Humans have evolved to elevate acute short term needs above abstract long term ones

2. America has peaked as an empire and is on the decline, leading to populist fixations that overlook or purposely exclude climate change

3. Social media and the national political news media form an “infotainment complex” that capitalizes on division, pushing the culture father apart, unable to come together on any existential threat

4. There is still uncertainty about what will happen with climate, with some either fatalistic or optimistic about the outcomes, leading to varying degrees of inaction

5. It’s terrifying, so people consciously / unconsciously tune it out

Thanks for the article. Cheers, TJ