NAMELESS HUMANS (March 31, 2014)

The last report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is finally out. Produced over three years by some three-hundred scientists, it numbers two-thousand and six-hundred pages in thirty-two volumes. I just went through an article about the report in The Guardian, and I was impressed by the number of online comments trailing it. There are more than seven-hundred of them, and it is only around noon. Counting no more than a few dozen words on the average, the comments are all over the place, as expected. There are accusations, pleas, and threats galore. But not a single commentator has a name. A first and second name, that is. Or a given and family name. Many of them go by sheer numbers, too. What does this tell you about climate change, though? The main problem with climate change will not be the weather but the humans. They have not only brought climate change to the planet, but they will also sauce it up when the going gets tough. And what threat can be worse than that of nameless humans?