We’re in a Civilizational Emergency….

But We’re Still in Denial About It

Matthew Thayer, AP

I’d just opened Twitter — or do we have to say “X” now? — to glance at what was going on in the world. And the scenes which greeted me were nothing short of apocalyptic. Huge, billowing clouds of smoke and ash. Lightning flashing. Flames, suddenly ripping through a town. People fleeing to the beach. Driving through an inferno. Saying “go, go, we can’t do anything for her!” A woman left for dead. The terrified jumping into the ocean — the last refuge.

In the end, the fires left close to nothing of Lahaina. Suddenly — everything that those people had, knew, owned — gone. In hours. 36 people, dead. Shock. Tragedy.

How did the fires start? We don’t know for sure — one idea is that they were ignited from cinders blowing in from another island. What we do know, though, is this.

Every day now we wake up to increasingly dire scenes. Surreal, devastating, incredible ones. “We expected rain, we expected floods,” Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke (D) told reporters Wednesday. “We never anticipated in this state that a hurricane that did not make impact on our islands would cause these kind of wildfires.” Scenes that stretch the boundaries and limits of what we thought possible.

Every day now, we wake up to a new reality.

We are in a civilizational emergency. But we’re still in denial about it.

I use the big “we” here. That doesn’t mean you, or me. But it does mean power, institutions, systems, norms, society, and culture. We don’t recognize, on any of these levels, yet, that we’re in a civilizational emergency — even though, waking up, and scanning the news, it’s growing harder and harder to push aside the creeping, disturbing, stomach-churning feeling that things are going badly wrong for us.

Let me give you a few examples.

On the same day as the megafires which leveled Lahaina so apocalyptically, Joe Biden said that he’s “practically declared” a climate emergency. To him, and his staff, I understand the sentiment — he’s passed a world-leading climate bill, which is sparking investment, poised to make America a leader in green manufacturing and clean energy.

But that’s not declaring a climate emergency. It’s not close to it, in fact. What might declaring a climate emergency mean? Biden getting up on the international stage with Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, and saying the words: “We are in a climate emergency.” Remember how Guterres made waves a few weeks ago for saying we’re no longer in the Era of Global Warming — now we’re in the Era of Global Boiling? Biden’s “practically declared” is on a much, much weaker level. It doesn’t alert the world to the danger we’re in. It doesn’t set the international agenda. It doesn’t make every journalist and intellectual in the world sit up and take notice.