The "Oh Shit" Moment That Never Came?

Just below the Arctic Circle in Siberia, temperatures hit 92°F the other day. The permafrost of the region is melting, resulting in rampant and out of control wildfires and a 1000-mile long burning curtain of smoke and, most disturbingly, increased methane release. Does this qualify as an "oh shit" moment? Perhaps not. It seems likely nothing will. Not the flooding of Manhattan subways. Not increased wildfires and droughts. Not the disappearance of bees or monarch butterflies. And not the disappearance of Arctic sea ice. Not "the warmest year on record" followed by "the warmest year on record." Not the violent disruption of the jetstream. And not Siberian heat waves.

It may be that, somehow, nothing can qualify as an "oh shit" moment. Could it really be that we will just trundle off into the long night of extinction indifferently? Unknowingly?

Unknowingly. Perhaps there is something to pursue in that word “know.” In certain Romance languages, the verb “to know” is the same as the verb “to taste” - in Spanish, “saber” and in French, “savoir.” This means that in order to know something you must taste it. It reminds me of a story a feisty old sociology professor told us in college. It seems there was a group of tourists visiting Texas and, seeking an authentic culinary experience, they went out for some barbecue at a ranch. The roast meats were good, if slightly "different" tasting, but the guests enjoyed the food.  After dinner, they inquired to their hosts as to what manner of preparation was used on the barbecue chicken. The guests were informed them that they had eaten barbecued rattlesnake for dinner. The cosmopolitan travelers proceeded to vomit up the delicacy.

And so it is with our baking planet. The cataclysms are unfolding, the mercury is rising and people are witnessing these events. However, we are unable to name the events for what they are. Ideology interferes. Culture interferes. The events are put in the "unthinkable” mental bin. Na na na na na! This isn’t happening! This isn’t roast rattlesnake! This is delicious roast chicken! 

The events occurring in the material world are unthinkable because they are the result of a belief system which defines the lives of so many: Progress is good. Progress took us from hunting and gathering to agriculture to industrialism to the information age. We did this with the fossil fuels and grit and innovation. Ergo, fossil fuels and grit and innovation are good. Ergo, they cannot result in planetary devastation.

Perhaps all that can be said to people contorted into such a mental knot is this: It's time to wake up and taste the rattlesnake.

Note: The elegaically poetic phrase “the long night of extinction” is from Derrick Jensen’s 2012 book, Dreams.