The Misdirection of Rage
Climate change isn’t killing us. Stupidity is.
We live in humanity’s most dangerous time since the advent of civilization 6,000 years ago, defined by agriculture that transformed us from wandering hunter-gatherers into settled societies. This explosion of dependable calories was also the beginning of the explosion of our population, and mastery and destruction of what we have foolishly considered to this point to be an inexhaustible natural world. Agriculture created time to think and invent, ponder the mysteries of life and the universe, the development of written language, specialization in jobs, the need for organized governance, and unfortunately, standing armies with which we have been killing each other ever since.
In spite of our innate violent behavior, life in numerous ways became safer, more comfortable and controllable. Scientific knowledge advanced, and the arts grew in sophistication.
We learned some basics. The Earth is round. The Greek mathematician Eratosthenes, who was also the head of the…