CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate Change and the Human Bandwidth for Suffering
The struggle of selective sympathies
“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” — Rabbi Tarfon
It’s difficult to deny that we live in precarious times. The ocean is rising, natural disasters are worsening, and our intricate web of biodiversity is beginning to show serious signs of weakness. We’re traveling through dire straits and don’t want to face the music. The notes are discordant.
Our bandwidth for the suffering out there is finite. Entire lifetimes could be devoted to even the smallest of issues that ail us. Among the great ills of the digital age, though, are the ways we can become systematically desensitized to all of them. Sometimes it feels as though to even be alive these days is to face an undying storm of pressing issues. To be informed is to know more than many can handle. To give our attention to each dilemma that deserves it is to spread ourselves thinner than our souls can bear.
Scientists have been sounding the alarm bells about the horrible fallout our climate could face if we didn’t change our ways since as far back as the 1960s. But even…
