Optimism for the Future?

Var är protesterna och fackeltågen? Helle Klein Ledarkrönika Ledare Aftonbladet: "Pessimismen eller snarare uppgivenheten är inte bara Cusacks. Vår tid präglas mer av undergångsstämningar än av hoppet om att världen faktiskt går att förändra."

I don't know where Klein has gotten the idea that we live out a pessimism for the world? Is it the doomsday prophet like predictions that the climate change mafia paint for us? Remember, the world has never been in such a good shape before as it is in today. Never been so peaceful. I do not understand either why protesting would do any good. Media is actually responsible for some of the gloom.

One problem though that I believe is serious is that science, the potential savior of mankind, is currently taking a beating from the use of doomsday prediction. There are voices of caution, however, Ingemar Nordin, Professor of History of Science in Linköping, is critical of the approach of the IPCC. He brings up the fact that temperature has been down globally for a while, something the IPCC brush away as a temporary fluke. If you try to use science for answering questions currently beyond its reach, you dirty down its name. This would have implications for world hope.

Another problem that currently is important is the impatience seen in the climate change debate. This might also lead to a backlash when it become apparent to people how much India and China actually will pollute to continue their development. Environmentalists are trying to give people the idea that we have to stop polluting altogether to save the planet. If this would be true, we would be in dire straits. People feel this incoherence and that causes pain.

"Change" appeared to be the key word for people all over the world. What is not clear, at least to me, is what kind of change people wish for. I think people in Sweden, for example, realise how extremely well off they in reality are and therefore take the increased unemployment with a grain of salt. On the other hand. Some people in fact are out with the torches. However, they torch cars and schools. The outsideship debate is important because it will be necessary to ask the question if it is possible at all to remove it or if we have to learn to live with it and activate people in another meaningful fashion than with jobs. Global competition will leave many people outside. 100% employment is no longer possible.