I recently stumbled across an article that has really stuck to my mind: it goes by the title Raising My Child in a Doomed World by Roy Scranton. Reserve your judgments because, as absurdly pessimistic as the title may sound, he has a point. In fact, it would be beyond redundant to even discuss his point because we all know what it is. But as trivial as the fact may be, our indifference is large enough to not act accordingly, and even at times to forget that it is happening at all.
Do you know the story of ostriches sticking their heads into the ground when they are in danger? We all think that is pretty dumb, right? Just because the impending doom is out of their sight, albeit voluntarily, it does not mean that they are exempted from the damning consequences. Except ostriches do not bury their heads to hide from danger, they do it to rotate their eggs which are buried underground to make sure they are heated evenly. 
Imagine crossing a street when, out of nowhere, you see a car out of control raging at you. There is no time to escape, and, at that split moment, you realize that you are bound to be run over. What do you do? You shut your eyes firm until the bleak dark emptiness overwhelms your blindsight. 
The idea of blindness is a recurring theme in many great works of literature. It is a recurring theme because it powerfully symbolizes the character’s incompetence and foolishness. We are all blind.
There are actions that inspire emotions and emotions that inspire action. Either way, the action is executed; the only difference is the amount of willpower the action requires to be executed in the first place. Fighting for climate change is the kind that falls under the category of “actions that inspire emotions,” and it is hard because it does not come with the easy emotional drive to take action. It is like going to the gym. You are never emotionally impelled to go to the gym, but you do it because it is the right thing. And the mere act of working out inspires the “feeling good” emotion. If only we all had the willpower to make nice abs, we would have long solved the climate crisis by now.
Admittedly, I am probably one of the biggest offenders here because, like most of us, I do not act enough and, on top of that, I stole something valuable. Although I know for a fact that my writing would not cause any significant impact, it still makes me feel good to write about it, pinpointing peoples’ wrongdoing meticulously. It makes me feel I am “doing something” when I am actually “doing nothing”. I stole my pleasure, exploited what there is to indulge, and gave nothing in return. Does that make me a hypocrite?
Let us return to the title for a minute because this is not an article about Climate Change. This is an article about a wildfire steadily inching closer to our only home. This is an article about ostriches sticking their heads into the ground not to hide from the danger but to take care of their offspring. This is an article about humans sticking their heads into the ground not to take care of their only home but to hide from the danger knowing that will not exempt us from the damning consequences. This is not an article about Climate Change because the word implies “something unfathomably bigger than an individual” and therefore dismisses the significant role each and every individual plays in the grand scheme.
Do you know how to eat an elephant?—One bite at a time…