A few months back, amidst the stimulating ferment of The Deeper Dive, I literally woke one morning with the short analogy below in my head.  Prompted, without doubt, by my frustrations with the burgeoning popular debate on whether there’s “still time” to avoid the worst effects of destabilising our very climate.

I’m glad the climate scientists are doing their specialised work — who knows what useful insights they might unexpectedly turn up — but honestly, for the rest of us, it really doesn’t seem the critical question at this point…

Here’s what fell out of me when I woke up; the couple of folk I shared it with encouraged me to post it here:

I’m on the Titanic and a few of us have spotted the danger — we’re headed straight for an iceberg and it’s surely too late. We should start prepping the lifeboats, urgently.

But wait!  This experienced seaman here has done the sums and points out that there’s still time to avoid the lethal collision.  If we turn the wheel hard to starboard any time in the next twenty minutes or so, we will most likely pull through, just. I don’t have any reason to doubt their expertise.

However, we’ve pleaded with the captain and the crew, and they are firmly set on maintaining the current path through the night — after all, their jobs depend on our keeping to schedule.

They also, incidentally, have access to the only weapons on board. And although they’re greatly outnumbered by passengers, most of our fellows are feasting and making merry, just three days into their trip aboard the unsinkable Titanic (well, apart from those travelling in third class, of course, but who listens to them..?)

I do believe that changing course now would still avoid the collision, but then that was true for the past three days too. And still, here we are.

Is it really too soon to focus on preparations for impact?

By the way, lest I get accused of having lost my optimism amid the darkness of our times, here are the insights that allow communities to nevertheless improve the climate that affects our lives, even as the ship of civilisation ploughs blindly on.

I’m for responding to the mysteries of life with such heartfelt, eyes-open, life-sustaining action, rather than insisting that “giving up” is the appropriate name for anything other than soul-deadening lobbying of global/corporate governance, or drop-in-the-ocean net emissions reductions.

But can we finally stop pretending that this omnicidal civilisation’s about to turn on a dime and repent?