![]() It’s not a solution to climate change, more of a last resort, and he’s troubled that we may even need to risk it. Keith, a Canadian scientist-philosopher, has a radical alternative. By almost all accounts, the cuts aren’t happening quickly enough to stop the accumulation of gases in the atmosphere at levels that are already starting to play havoc with our climate, from Sacramento to Sydney. News flash: The world is failing to meet them and failing fast. Nations have come together to set goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, scientists have mapped out the cumulative risks that a warming planet poses to humans and other species. The badge is a signpost in the long march toward global action on the environment and on climate change, which many believe has become the existential crisis of our time. The framed typewritten label is the badge worn by his father to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972. On the wall of David Keith’s airy, book-lined office in Harvard University’s engineering school is a faded 3-by-3-inch card. that doesn’t actually bind the hands of the future. “Even if we all collectively decided in our generation that. The difficulty in finding a legitimate way to assess the risks could mean that Dr. But detractors worry that progress in geoengineering research could lessen the urgency to cut global emissions. To conservatives, the relatively modest cost of such plans is attractive. An abrupt stop, for starters, would crank up the thermostat at a dangerous clip. ![]() Assuming the idea actually works, it would require maintenance to keep dimming the sun. Slowing the warming of the Earth could buy time to build zero-emission economies. But it raises ethical, legal, and geopolitical questions. If it works, solar geoengineering could be a last-ditch option to buy time and avert ecological disaster. ![]() Scientists are exploring a radical idea: dimming the sun. That is an awesome responsibility and a revolutionary opportunity. Even when the world is unkind, we can be unmoved in our determination to love, to build, to seek credible hope. Never to excuse or ignore cruelty or crime, but to recognize that how we view the world shapes the world. What is the media’s responsibility?Author and anti-apartheid activist Alan Paton once said of the Monitor, “It gives no shrift to any belief in the irredeemable wickedness of man, nor in the futility of human endeavor.”In addition to reporting acts of kindness, perhaps a next step is to see the world through a lens of kindness. But can this elevation only happen with stories of kindness? Must the rest of the news abandon us to despair?The world is asking us to consider that question deeply. She defined kindness and heroism as “moral beauty,” which “triggers ‘elevation’ – a positive and uplifting feeling” that “acts as an emotional reset button, replacing feelings of cynicism with hope, love and optimism.”The study suggested this happens when one watches a news story about kindness after watching ones about bombings, cruelty, and violence. ![]() They support “the belief that the world and people in it are good.” And they provide “relief to the pain we experience when we see others suffering.”It was her fourth point that stuck with me. ![]() A week ago, a British researcher published an article titled “Stories of kindness may counteract the negative effects of looking at bad news.” As you might imagine, I was intrigued.Kathryn Buchanan of the University of Essex shared four main takeaways from her research: Stories of kindness remind us of our shared values. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |