What Comes Next
Photo Source Doc Searls | CC BY 2.0
There are no hidden secrets about anthropogenic global warming. It’s everywhere, wherever one looks! After all, the People’s Climate March (311,000) in 2014 organized by 350.org (Bill McKibben) was one of the biggest rallies ever held in NYC.
Also, worldwide exposure was ubiquitously on display at the Paris Agreement/2015 assemblage to tackle climate change, involving all of the nations of the world, in full living color.
Name another event that garners more worldwide attention than “climate change” and its kissing cousin “global warming.” They’ve become the equivalent of “brand names” all on their own, superstars, Madison Ave not needed. Move over Coke, global warming has top billing!
But wait, there’s a problem.
Few people really, truly understand climate change/global warming because of scientific gobbledygook that confuses, for example: (1) Unique language- “positive feedback loops” or “albedo” (2) Extent- “slowing thermohaline” (3) Measurement- “Keeling Curve” (4) Tipping points “methane clathrates” (5) Geological cycles such as “Holocene.” Or, how about Anthropogenic or Pleistocene?
Those unfamiliar exotic words are unique to climate science but foreign to the Average Joe, thus overwhelming and feeling kinda dumb. Accordingly, how can people discuss or ponder the issue? They can’t! And, they don’t! Ipso facto, the biggest problem haunting public perception of climate change is raw ignorance.
Granted public opinion polls show people strongly favor tackling climate change, and they’re hip to the idea of strong opposition to the global warming monster (but, who isn’t!) Then again, it doesn’t matter if they’re 99% because America’s Congress and WH are all-in 100% for fossil fuels, “let the chips fall will they may.”
In fact, America’s Congress has never ever tackled the global warming
issue, but yet Wal-Mart’s “Project Gigaton” plans to go 50% solar by 2025. Both Target and Wal-Mart are already, right now, in the thick of installing solar energy systems like crazy. What a bizarre stark contrast to America’s dumbheads on Capitol Hill!
issue, but yet Wal-Mart’s “Project Gigaton” plans to go 50% solar by 2025. Both Target and Wal-Mart are already, right now, in the thick of installing solar energy systems like crazy. What a bizarre stark contrast to America’s dumbheads on Capitol Hill!
Still, lack of understanding is a major obstacle to getting the public onboard the climate change bandwagon. Ignorance is an enormous impediment that pushes people away. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people are left standing in the dust, but what if it’s possible to capture them? Think of the power behind hundreds of thousands of eco warriors as an unstoppable force.
America’s battle for sanity needs eco warriors and not easily targeted polling numbers that don’t have bite! Blah blah blah polls don’t put one boot on the ground.
Author/futurist Guy Lane intends to change all of that.
Ergo, his brilliant, self-educating book, What Comes Next(www.guylane.com/whatcomesnext) is packed full of great explanations that are simple and friendly to use and easily understood. It’s a fun book to read because the reader suddenly feels “very smart” and “well informed.” Thank heavens, a book that actually makes people smart about a complex subject. What a relief!
Assuming What Comes Next was a movie, rather than a book, it would be a “must see film.” It is crisply written and easy to understand with a plot that covers significant aspects of climate change by putting the reader smack dab in the midst of “how to change the world.”
The following is a fictional movie trailer voice-over, and it’s in Guy Lane’s own words, straight out of his book:
“Over the past 30 years of my research into changing the outcome I have found many horrid things that threaten to kill off human civilization, including the Blue Ocean Event. But I have also come across ideas that we could use to save ourselves from the worst fate. Plus, I have invented some ideas, too.”
“These ideas might help us learn to swim, like the inflated bags you can connect to your arms, Water Wings, some people called them. Or Floaties. Let’s call them Floaties. These ideas advise the actions we could take to avoid drowning, to start floating and, maybe even swimming.”
“Imagine for a moment that we ditch the psychopaths who run the world so badly and set a path that is good for all of us. Our mission is to foster a Class 5 Planet…”
Yes, Guy Lane not only smoothly explains the uniqueness and complexities of climate change, ironing out all of the strange lingo, making readers sharp as a tack, but without diminishing the seriousness of danger inherent to the global warming leviathan, offering unique ways for people to get involved, as they transform into eco warriors.
Lane laces the book with “imagination,” meaningful ways to solve the problems so the “reader” can personally feel involved and self-satisfactorily smile as an advocate, thereby adding substance to their lives. That’s the consummate feel good experience.
What Comes Next is a distinctive tome because it not only takes the reader on a harrowing trip into the grisly dank depths of our troubled world but also uplifts the reader to a glowing realization that it doesn’t have to be that way. This is the single most important message in Lane’s book, as it spreads apart dark rumbling clouds, opening up to spectacular iridescent rainbows that radiate wonderful dreams.
By that, Guy Lane is the epitome of unvarnished optimism wrapped around the ugly gory details of a failing biosphere that may in fact actually fail, and he does not back away from that conclusion. Therein his true warrior grit and spirit comes to the fore, providing a way out of the morass in Part 7, Learning to Swim. Then, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it is flickering, albeit barely.
The heart and soul of this instructive book takes readers on a feel good ride whilst proffering an easy to read understanding of the vast multitudes of climate change headaches.
Lane’s book is a splendid gift for all who want to learn how to feel comfortable about discussing the most profound issue of our times. He’s empowering people to achieve personal satisfaction and meaningfulness in the context of a very challenging world.
That’s accomplishment!
Postscript: I make no guarantee that we will achieve a better world; it may be too late for that. But I will show the way.
Guy Lane, Australian Sustainability Specialist and Fiction Writer
Guy Lane, Australian Sustainability Specialist and Fiction Writer
Extremely biased additional info: Boot Congress! Vote for non-incumbents, but vote “yes” for incumbent Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) whose wife Sandra (Ph.D. marine biology) is chief scientific officer of AltaSea-very cool. The planet needs them, badly.
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