Abstract
Blame for climate change inaction is rarely directed at a fundamental cause, the excessive complexity of society. It has given rise to post-truth, which has been largely reduced to unflattering stereotypes of the public, and post-trust, by which the public see their national institutions as increasingly distant and ineffectual. The two comprise post-reality, by which confidence in the truth is weakened by distance from its source, a pervasive remoteness leads to a lack of accountability and indifference, and much scholarship and institutional practice is similarly prejudiced. A gross lack of proportion goes unnoticed in discourse that is innumerate, the more readily accepted by those (including many of those in public life) with a higher education that closes the mind to technical matters and thus to the seriousness of climate change. Regarding climate change inaction as an applied problem suggests a renewed emphasis on authentic public education and on activism outside the traditional ambit of scholarship.
Highlights
(including many of those in public life) with a higher education that closes the mind to technical matters and to the seriousness of climate change
All can be subsumed in the lesser known but fundamental culprit, the excessive complexity of society, from which arise the ills of post-truth, post-trust and post-reality
Post-truth applies to the upheavals that followed the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump, by which the most basic beliefs of many of those in public life were so confounded that they suffered something like a collective nervous breakdown
Summary
As the consequences of climate change inaction increase in severity it is increasingly tempting to apportion blame. National governments have the option of blaming the UN-mediated process for being ineffectual or too slow, other countries for not pulling their weight, environmental campaigners who have sometimes added to confusion, and public opinion, which for many decades is said to have voted for business-as-usual. The public can blame those in power for lack of leadership and journalists for not holding government and its inaction to account. Central bankers will say that government is solely responsible for policy, as will corporate interests. Those with fabulous riches, together with the fossil fuels and allied industries, will say that they were merely obeying market forces. Climate scientists will be blamed for being poor communicators or for not predicting extreme weather events.
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