“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise – with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country”.

-Abraham Lincoln 1862

Lincoln made this statement during his country’s civil war, at a time when he was advocating compensated emancipation for the South’s slaves.

Abraham Lincoln - "As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."

What he was hinting at is of supreme relevance to us now – that we are currently in the midst of a situation that we have never encountered before. And because that is where we find ourselves, our thinking may not be up to the task. Why not you might ask? Because many of us have developed our beliefs, habitual thinking patterns and view of ourselves in the world at a time when the (environmental / climate) issues were different to what they are now (even if that was only 20 or 30 years ago).

So what is our new situation? For the first time in recorded human history, we are approaching or already beyond the absolute carrying capacity of our planet. The climate system’s decreasing ability to buffer changes in atmospheric gas concentrations is paralleled by the decreasing availability of arable land, fresh water and food production.

For many people that is a new concept, and one that is difficult to comprehend if one has always believed that this planet’s bounty was infinite. Why might we think that way? When there were fewer of us, and living standards were generally lower, it did seem like we lived on an infinite planet. There was more than enough to go around. But unfortunately not any more. Anthropogenic climate change is just one of the symptoms. But one that most of us are poorly equipped intellectually to deal with.

Image credit: Wikimedia.