Over Reaction

On the good news side, Tulsi Gabbard has qualified for the 4th debate, and Nancy Pelosi has given the O.K. for an impeachment probe. Which is still way short of saying, ‘O.K., he really is way fucking out of line, let’s impeach him’ which is what she should have said like about 2 1/2 years ago, but better late than never, yeah?
On the downside, the right’s reaction to Greta Thunberg’s speech is over the top and completely out of line. One guest on Fox News referred to her as a “mentally ill Swedish child.” Fox apologized quickly, by Fox standards, and said they won’t have that guest on again.
I’ve been having an exchange on Facebook with someone who doesn’t like her much and thinks climate change is not happening, that there is no consensus among scientists that it’s happening, and he also used dismissive language.
What the hell is wrong with these people? Why are they so resentful of people trying to do good? It is a conundrum.
But, just regarding climate change, the way I see it, there are four possibilities.
Either climate change is happening, and we decide to do something about it, or climate change is not happening, and we decide in error to do something about it, or climate change is not happening and we do nothing about it, or climate change is happening and we decide in error not to do anything about it.
In option A, we save the world, achieve a utopian paradise, and future generations will praise us mightily. In option B, we achieve a utopian paradise, but it won’t have been all that necessary. Future generations will praise us anyway, because living in a utopian paradise will be awesome. In option C, the status quo continues, and people keep driving around and around in their cars until all the oil is finished, and then we’ll transition to solar and wind. Oil companies will continue to rake in big bucks, which will make their executives and stockholders very happy. In option D, billions of people die, and the rest wind up living in sewers and abandoned coal mines, wearing oxygen masks and tanks whenever they venture to the surface to scavenge.
We don’t actually have 4 options, though. Either climate change is real or it isn’t, so our only choice is whether to do something about it or not.

I am very much in favor of doing something about it, because options A and B both wind up with us living in a utopian paradise, which is something I’ve always wanted to do.
If we don’t do something, we wind up with options C (general unpleasantness) or D, which is something we really should want to avoid.