The collapse of Western Civilization – A View from the Future by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

« Science fiction writers construct an imaginary future ; historians attempt to reconstruct the past. »

« Knowledge did not translate into power. »

« In the 1970’s, scientists began to recognize that human activities were changing the physical and biological functions of the planet in consequential ways. »

« Meanwhile, , a different version of denial emerged in non-industrialized nations, which argued that the threat of climate change was being used to prevent their development. »

« artists were among the first to truly grasp the significance of the changes that were occuring. »

« While reductionism proved powerful in many domains, particularly quantum physics and medical diagnostics, it impeded investigations of complex systems. »

« Western scientists built an intellectual culture based on the premise that it was worse to fool oneself into believing in something that did not exist than not to believe in something that did. »

« A key attribute of the period was that power did not reside in the hands of those who understood the climate system, but rather in political, economic, and social institutions that had a strong interest in maintaining the use of fossil fuels. »

« The American people had been persuaded, in the words of U.S.  President Ronald Reagan (r.1980-1988), that government was « the problem, not the solution. »

« By blocking anticipatory acton, neoliberalists did more than expose the tragic flaws in their own system : they fostered expansion of the forms of governance they most abhorred. »

« Baconianism. A philosophy, generally attributed to the English jurist Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), that held that through experience, observation, and experiment, one could gather reliable knowledge about the natural world and this knwoledge would empower its holder. »

« Writing from the perspective of a future historian solved that problem. Viewing things in hindsight gives you emotional distance. »

« There will be a future for humanity, even if one no longer dominated by « Western Culture. »

« authoritarian states may well find it easier to make the changes necessary to survive rapid climate change. »

« The challenge is always to determine what is needed in any given situation. »

« It’s way too late for precaution. Now we are talking about damage control. »

« You have to have chutzpah to write any book. Or to stand in a classroom and expect students to listen. Strangely enough, they do, and sometimes they even thank you. Readers, too. »

« Hmm… you can’t predict what your readers will take away. Books are like a message in a bottle. You hope someone will open it, read it, and get the message. Whatever that is. »

The collapse of Western Civilization – A View from the Future by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway