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Check out the Constitution, check out our birth certificates – look for yourself – nowhere in any document were we given a license to destroy the world. We have no such manifest destiny.
We look back at crazy things people used to do, like burning witches, and we think "What the hell was wrong with those people?" Well, people in the future will look back at us and wonder "How is it possible they didn't react?" It will be hard for them to believe, although it will be obvious from their world that we didn't.
Let's be clear -- we don't "believe" in climate change – it isn't a matter of belief – any more than gravity depends on belief. Climate change exists as a matter of established fact, supported by mountains of evidence. We need to avoid language that suggests it's a matter of doctrine and ideology.
James was never impressed by computer models. In fact he was a flat-out climate skeptic. But as he tells us, he came to see it's really about real-world facts being far outside their natural bounds, and that does impress him.
We don't want to live in the dinosaurs' greenhouse climate -- that would be stupid! With so many people saying "But the climate has always changed", James says yes but we really don't want to go back there.
What's at stake here is our own self respect. To go into the future without a sense of guilt that we're a bunch of greedy, low-life, self-serving SOBs who don't care about the future. Start with that. And then think about doing it for all the people who will come after us and do it right for them.
As an old man, talking to my children and grandchildren, I want to be able to say "Girls, I saw what was happening and I did the best I could." It's vital for us to take that kind of position.