The Climate Crisis — Why is This Still a Thing?

In the years following the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, there was a sense of positive jubilation: Yes, we’ve recognized the damage we’ve caused to the environment, but the conviction and the momentum to change the way we dwell on the planet was in place.  Yet while we’ve scored  some successes in reducing air and water pollution, climate change remains — more than a half-century later — an ominous, existential threat to the planet. Today we still struggle with denial, half-measures, tortuous policy proposals, and virtuous personal sacrifices (e.g., recycling plastics) that have no impact on the overall bleak picture.  Pope Francis in 2015, in his encyclical Laudato si’, famously urged that the problem must be attacked at multiple levels simultaneously – the systemic, the institutional, and perhaps most importantly, the personal. Is this the key that is missing from our efforts? Can we avert the worst-case scenarios of climate change without the “personal transformation” the pope’s vision invites?