2023-08-05 07:16:00
A few months ago I wrote a column on this site about major changes worldwide – heat, drought, lack of water and the consequences for agricultural activity and food supply, extreme weather, a near future with many people adrift because they cannot survive due to previous circumstances where they are – and then commented on my own so-called alarmism by saying I always confuse that with realism.
What I meant: I think the term alarmism has been used on social and sometimes less social media lately to silence people with genuine concerns – scientists, politicians, columnists and tweeters even. Where the idea seems: I don’t want a black and dramatic picture of the future, I can’t handle that, I don’t believe that, stop that, exclamation mark.
Hope it will stop on its own
To be clear: I don’t want that either, that doesn’t make me happy and sometimes anxious, but labeling something and hoping it will stop or change by itself doesn’t seem like the way to go either.
Last Wednesday this newspaper was about that alarmism. Because IPCC co-chair Bart van den Hurk argued for more attention to solutions, for example in climate reports. Which in recent years (decades), you know, have become darker and darker in tone. Use terms like global boiling in collective suicide is unwise, according to van den Hurk, because it makes people climate-depressed. That last term is not his, by the way, but you know what I mean.
Good idea
I myself am from home – or since they kicked me out, that is also possible – quite optimistic. I believe in ideas, solutions, the resilience and creativity of people, I believe in working together and realizing that you can only achieve something together, I believe in the power of arguments and listening to people who think differently. And so I think naming possibilities, of possible solutions or improvements, is a good idea.
I just think at the same time that it is so often used not to do other things, to make choices that really need to be made (for now) but not to make.
After all, we now have a prototype of a machine that can convert highly heated seawater worldwide into drinking water in a climate-neutral manner and without emissions, raw material for non-flammable batteries for electric cars, and a stack of decent songs for Suzan and Freek. And we model a new leader for the CDA from the residual material!
This device does not yet exist
You understand, this device does not really exist yet, but it is the kind of language and ideas with which, in, for example, the agricultural and aviation and transport sectors, innovations are thrown into the spotlight, after which all kinds of changes are urgently needed, and have been for decades were, too, to be postponed for a while.
In this newspaper, three climate experts argued for a smart mix of facts (alarmism, even…?) and (possible) solutions, the representative of Extinction Rebellion believes in the holy moly, this is really wrongdoctrine. I especially think that I should do more myself, and hope that this proves to be enough.
Dolf Jansen is a comedian and writes a weekly column for Trouw. Read his columns here.
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