Commemorating human failure - we need to shift our focus

Today we commemorate and lament the tragedy that is war.

We dote on Anzac Day - we need to shift our
attention to addressing climate change.

Thousands of people gathered at ceremonies throughout Australia to remember events that are clear evidence of humanity’s failings.

Another event of a magnitude sufficient to make all the wars resulting from those failings appear of little consequence is about to rush over our horizon to disrupt and disable humanity and leave unimaginable carnage strewn about the planet.

The door through which we can access the solutions brought upon us through the damage we have done to our atmosphere is closing – our opportunities to address climate change are quickly becoming fewer and fewer.

The time, effort and money invested in commemorating our mistakes is misplaced for if we re-directed that trio, accompanied by the massive and sweeping media coverage war and its commemoration is given, then we would at least have some chance of mitigating, or adapting to climate change.

Among those things which will disable much of society and bring with it costs almost beyond comprehension is see level rise.

ClimateProgress discusses the consequences of sea level rise in a story headed: “84,000 Lives threatened by sea level rise in New England”.

The troubles facing New England are just one of an intricate mosaic of troubles facing people around the globe in this and the next decade.

Commemorating wars is a relatively simple emotive process as for once a year you assemble, illustrate your concerns, have your thoughts assuaged, secure endorsement from  your fellows (that’s most people), endorse business as usual and then return to live your life largely unchanged.

Nothing has effectively happened, unlike what is required when you become a climate change advocate and to say you endorse the science that unquestionably illustrates the reality of a damaged atmosphere, means you are stepping aside from society’s momentum and effectively saying “there’s another and better way”.

That takes courage, dramatically different from that exhibited by those who stormed the beaches at Gallipoli nearly a century ago, but still an aspect of courage about which people have little, or no understanding.