Humans have decided to accept the risk of certain warming in exchange for easy, cheap carbon fuels. Of course, mass marketing helps this along by exhorting us to ignore the consequences and to give in to this short term indulgence..
This is similar to the profligate debt packaging of the last few decades. The payoff from the risk is too high for humans to resist. So we persist despite warnings. Now just one week of Congressional hubris and we are supposed to think all is well. The financial industry bailout is a model for how government will face the next big problem. And I am not convinced that government will do very well.We are disempowered, we keep an eye on the horizon and see the warming coming. We can speak truth and demand an end to denial, but we are a long way from significant action. The most fundamental thing we can control is our spiritual center. We can prepare ourselves for the privation ahead by knowing about it. Think of it as a slow moving hurricane like Katrina. Everyone was stunned by the unexpected death and destruction and the suffering that still remains. For the next hurricanes FEMA tried harder, and people sensed the importance of seeking safety preparing and plans to survive. The next hurricane will teach us more lessons.
Global Climate Destabilization is kind of like a looming heat storm with no end. We have never seen this, we don't know what to expect, we are not completely sure about all the catastrophes associated with this. But clearly our own actions have made it worse, and our actions can make it less destructive. All of human history has never seen such a storm Science gives us much of a general view but we don't know exactly when, and we don't know exactly how bad. But the heat is on the horizon.
Humans will eventually know all this by feeling it directly. It is really hard for me to accept that our species is unable to act to the clear danger. It tests my acceptance, makes me angry that humans have not really decided to live into a multigenerational future. That is really sad. I expect people will feel these kinds of emotions more and more.