At 08:59 09/03/2006, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/03/the_problem_wit.html
Actually, the vast majority of the population hasn't even thought about
the issue. The muted reaction to our impending disaster comes down to
two things: 1. the name.
the economist on march 2 reviewed a book, "The Weather Makers", by Tim
Flannery:
"Mr Flannery's most intriguing thought, though, is almost a throwaway
point. But it is one that only an evolutionary biologist would have come up
with. He suggests that if humanity were facing the threat of cold, rather
than heat, the talking would have been over long ago and a strong plan of
action would be in place. His point is that Homo sapiens is a tropical
species which, having only recently spread to temperate and frigid climes,
still thinks like a tropical species. It really fears the cold, but rather
likes the heat. The word "warming", therefore, has positive overtones. So
perhaps the underlying problem is not so much, as in the case of staying
slim, that you have to trade a real sacrifice now for a potential benefit
in the future, but that a lot of people who are perfectly willing to
believe that global warming is happening don't really see it is a problem
at all. "
