The severest manifestation of the global polycrisis is climate change. The Earth’s climate is regulated by an enormously complex melange of interrelated processes, forming part of the planetary ecological web. The web includes the sun, the atmosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, and the biosphere. These are interrelated and interact through many natural cycles or biogeochemical cycles. Scientific understanding of the Earth’s climate system progressed significantly in the twentieth century. The pioneer of climate science, the late Wallace Broecker, warned in 1987 that interfering in natural systems not fully scientifically understood is like “playing Russian roulette which may result in unpleasant surprises”, because no one knows what lies in the active chamber of the gun.
Russian roulette players know the risky game they are playing. But humans hardly knew the consequences when they embarked on the path of modern fossil-fuel-powered economic growth.
However, at the beginning of 1980, when empirical evidence emerged about the impact on climate, the initial reaction of governments and corporations was denial, and the denial industry continues even today. We are now in a climate emergency which is set within the larger interconnected polycrisis.
The denial industry survives on the myth that the science of climate change is a pseudo-science...