Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Aussie Government ABC says there is nothing special about human beings.
The human race is not special. So why do we think we’re immune to mass extinction?
By Geoff Dawson
Updated Tue at 6:58amCould we face a mass extinction of human beings in our lifetime?
As global temperatures rise and this summer’s bushfires devastate the Australian landscape, it’s a worst-case scenario that is beginning to be seriously discussed.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus in recent weeks has also escalated the anxiety that people feel about their mortality.
However, there seems to be a difference in the way the public has reacted to these two threats. Global warming and potential mass extinction are seen as a vague threat somewhere out there in the distant future, whereas coronavirus is viewed as a clear and imminent danger.
The growing fear of a coronavirus pandemic appears to have quickly motivated Australian health authorities and governments into immediate and appropriate action.
By comparison, the anxiety around global warming and potential mass extinction seems muted.
Human beings have a naive optimism
A report written by Paul Gilding, a fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and commissioned by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, put forward the view that there is a “high likelihood of human civilisation coming to an end in 2050” if action is not taken to curb climate change.
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Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-03/global-warming-mass-extinction-psychological-impact/11923370
The reason people are not taking climate change seriously is the lack of evidence that global warming is a serious problem.
Climate scientists cannot credibly explain why a few degrees of warming, bringing temperatures at home closer to the warm sunny climate of Summer holiday destinations, would be such a bad thing.