ELECTRIFYING THE TITANIC

A treatise on the human resistance to the realities of climate change.

Ophuls notes at the beginning of his brief book that invoking the Titanicas a metaphor for impending doom is a bit tired, but nevertheless, when it comes to the subject of rapid climate change, “like that supposedly unsinkable ship, we are imprudently maintaining course and speed in the teeth of warnings that grave perils lie ahead.” When it comes to this willful blindness, Ophuls lays the blame on three human “mental defects that are especially problematic in the face of ecological warnings.” First, humans are lazy, greedy, and fearful; second, the human mind is inflexibly “sticky” (“once an idea is firmly lodged in the psyche, it can be almost impossible to dislodge, no matter how irrational or counterproductive it may be”); and third, the human mind is understandably boggled by the complexity of this particular problem. According to Ophuls, this inability to apprehend the full scope of some impending disaster is a recurrent failing; drawing on the cyclical-history theories of Oswald Spengler, author of The Decline of the West(1918), Ophuls considers everything from Earth’s dire health report to the fact that “existing institutions are largely incapable of resisting a slide toward authoritarian rule.” In one brief book, he does a competent job of summing up scientists’ consensus on the effects of climate change and explaining the ways we imperil our own survival on a planet that cannot sustain our reliance on fossil fuels, unmitigated pollution, and overuse of limited resources; i.e., our “profligate modern way of life.” Although Ophuls writes with a kind of solemn grace, readers should be prepared for a warranted bleak outlook, and those seeking glimmers of hope will have to look elsewhere. In Ophuls’ view, humans are unlikely to take sufficient action to mitigate the planet’s collapse.

An eloquent, fact-based call to arms about climate change.