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Climate change: what do we do with the information?

Valencia’s nightmare of catastrophic flooding wreaking havoc underscores a grim truth about climate change. Despite mounting evidence, human inaction remains the norm. 

So, “what do we do with the information?”
Rupert Read, author and professor of philosophy, poses this question as he reflects on this tragedy.

Valencia’s nightmare: flooding wreak havoc

In the span of just eight hours, Valencia was hit with a year’s worth of rain, resulting in more than 200 deaths. But this brutal event isn’t an isolated incident. Indeed, it mirrors extreme weather patterns seen in Italy and across the globe. And yet, our response remains inadequate in the face of such overwhelming evidence. There is a disturbing trend of growing numbness. A tendency to witness these catastrophes from a distance, accepting them as a new normal.

Climate emergency & humans inaction

Rupert Read’s poignant words, shared in a recent video, go straight to the heart of the issue:

“How do we handle the fact that people are suffering immensely because of the climate crisis and the response to that suffering doesn’t seem to be adequate? This is a very important dimension of the crisis that I don’t think has been fully understood yet. There is a gap between the amount of response, the amount in this case of, say, sadness we are feeling on the one hand, and the appropriate amount, on the other hand, of us collectively as a society, as a civilization. There isn’t nearly enough in the mass media about the immense suffering that the Spanish people are going through right now. And, about what it should mean to us.

Consider the idea of us being in a climate and ecological emergency, as a good reason for saying that we are, we are not treating collectively as an emergency. There is a gap between the actual emergency and the extent to which it’s being treated as an emergency.”

Read calls this crisis a “meta-emergency,” where our inability to treat the situation with the urgency it deserves amplifies the problem itself. He notes, “The meta-emergency is that we are not treating the emergency as an emergency. And that makes it so much worse. If we were responding adequately, we would be in a much better position than the one we find ourselves in today.”

In Read’s view, our collective failure to grasp the full scope of our environmental crisis is staggering. And this lack of recognition is a critical part of the problem. “This is the most troubling aspect of our failure,” he argues, “that it hasn’t even been fully recognized as a failure.” He advocates for a sweeping public inquiry on a global scale – a massive truth and reconciliation commission for climate, to understand how we’ve allowed things to go so terribly wrong for so long.

The emotional toll of these events also warrants attention. Read observes that our sadness, worry, and anger for the Spanish people don’t suffice. Instead, he identifies a secondary layer of sadness – “meta-sadness” – which arises from the inadequacy of our emotional response to these events.

What solution does Rupert Read offer?

So, Valencia’s nightmare of catastrophic flooding make us sad or angry but that is not enough. Read suggests that by recognizing our “meta-sadness” – our grief over our collective emotional inadequacy – we put ourselves in a better position to act. By acknowledging our insufficient responses, we open the door to more meaningful action. It’s a call to move beyond passive observation. And to challenge the systems that perpetuate this cycle of apathy and inaction.

This awareness could be the first step toward bridging the gap between understanding the problem and taking the decisive action required to address it.

Ultimately, only a true, intense, and profound awareness can wake us from this torpor, and push us toward collective action.

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