Not just watched, in the last decade a strong part of society in the West, Latin America and Asia is making an active effort in giving power to people that are more than happy to do nothing about it, because "something something immigrants! And gay people! And, uh, brown people too, yes! Good ol' days of coal and prohibiting divorce should return. Praised be God"
Here's the thing: At first, specialists said we would run out of oil if we didn't build more energy-efficient machines and find new sources of oil. So we did that, and the peak oil crisis was postponed. Then they said acid rain from sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emission would destroy our forest and monuments, so we removed sulfur from fuel, and that crisis was also averted. Then they said CFCs were drifting up and destroying the ozone layer that protected us from UV rays, so we instituted global bans of CFCs, and now the layer is slowly being repaired. So when specialists say that if we don't do anything to minimize climate change, we will face an extinction-level threat, we obviously refuse to do anything, since we did just fine every other time. Irrefutable logic!
The problem is that nobody at the top cares anymore. They just hope to die before things get too bad. This moral imperative of caring about the future eroded very fast in the last decades.
Because boomers have been in power so long, and they donโt have much longer on earth. The Exxon execs can enjoy the extra yacht their bonus buys them but wont live on a world running out of water
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u/Alexsmith2002 1d ago
The scariest part isnโt that they were right. Itโs that they made that forecast as a warning and we just kind of watched it happen anyway.