Scientists have been sounding alarms about human impact on climate since the early 1800s.

The brain evolved to focus on the present, food, avoiding death and procreating; climate change is slow.

Apathy is a defensive mechanism by our neolithic brain.

I’ve been reading published climate science literature for the past 20 years. The warnings about what is currently happening to our planet, and the predictions about what is going to happen, are now clearly defined and well supported by evidence. Scientists are sounding the alarms, but no one seems to notice.

The alarms have been blaring for a very long time. In 1824, Joseph Fourier proposed that the atmosphere traps heat; in 1856, Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated CO₂’s warming effect on the planet. In 1896, Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist and physicist, calculated the greenhouse effect and estimated that doubling CO₂ could raise global temperatures. In 1898, he explicitly linked rising CO₂ from industrial processes to a future “greenhouse effect” that could make the Earth’s climate “unendurable,” and was the first to warn that human activity could cause long-term climate change. Climate change occurs very slowly; 200 years later, we are witnessing the accuracy of their predictions.

The people who express the most concern are the people who will be most impacted. Younger adults report higher climate anxiety, with 49% of Gen Z and 39% of Millennials feeling anxious about their future. Older adults, particularly those aged 70 and above, who will not live long enough to witness the consequences of climate change, are much less worried, with only 22% expressing high concern.

Climate scientists face a difficult irony: they are predicting disastrous consequences for our planet, yet most people’s eyes glaze over when they are made aware.........

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