Imagine you are a pilot – a good pilot – but you know next to nothing about the mechanics and engineering of a plane.
You are on a remote island which is the site of an airplane servicing facility with 100 airplane engineers and mechanics and one other pilot.
A tsunami alert has been triggered and everyone must evacuate the island in under 5 hours as everything is certain to go under water. There are two planes on the island, both needing work to fly, but each has seating capacity for everyone.
The 102 human beings meet and every single engineer and mechanic, bar 1, agree that one of the planes is a much better option. In fact, they believe that choosing the other plane is an extremely dangerous option because radioactive material is certain to leak – and this cannot be repaired without new parts – and this will cause lasting serious health impacts on everyone.
The preferred choice requires everyone to pull together, but all parts are present and the team routinely completes this work within a few hours.
The team of 99 head off to work immediately while the other mechanical engineer seeks your support as they still back themself to have the other plane in a state to fly before the tsunami arrives.
You are a ‘salt of the Earth’ type, a bit sceptical of smart alec engineers, and you often support the underdog.
Do you support that one engineer, help them work on their choice while exposing yourself to radiation, and jump in the ‘hot’ seat to fly the plane❓
🚀Of course nobody in their right mind does.
That’s an example of 99 out of 100.
99.9% is 999 out of 1,000.
So when you hear people still wanting to argue against human-caused climate change, remember that they are supporting the 0.1%.
999 out of every 1,000 human beings who have chosen to spend their lives researching the relevant science have chosen the other plane.
👍🏼While I also respect that 0.1% of scientists because counter views must always be taken seriously, in fact it is critical for scientific progress like justice requires proper defense of even the most guilty, it is entirely foolish for humanity’s response to be any different to what our common sense tells us when only 1 in 1,000 hold a certain view.
In our day to day life, this ‘crash’ may appear to be happening in slow motion, but it is no less devastating to each of us, and the more we argue over our options, the more our response is delayed and the more devastating the consequences to everyone…
Of course the problem comes when both pilots are Tories and shareholders in the planes, and they refuse to fly only one plane insisting engineers and mechanics also work on the plane with leaking radiation putting in jeopardy the chance of the better option plane being able to fly. And yes, even though one of the pilots will also be badly impacted by leaked radiation, is it any different to the impacts from the climate crisis whereby we all feel its impacts no matter how rich we might be?
The really troubling possibility is that both pilots are deep down the QAnon rabbit hole and they consider the whole thing an elaborate conspiracy, in fact they reckon tsunamis don’t even exist, so neither will fly 😨
If only this were a pointless hypothetical…
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© Copyright Brett Edgerton 2023
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