We Have a Chance to Avert the Worst Effects of Climate Change

Those of you who have seen Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” will remember the scene in which young (9 years old?) Alvy Singer is so depressed about the ultimate fate of the Earth/universe (see clip below) that he cannot function and refuses to do his homework (“What’s the point?”).  Even a kindly psychologist hired by his mother fails to console him.

The movie is one of filmdom’s great comedies, and the audience fully understands that only severely neurotic people worry about what the universe will be like in five billion years.

Having said that, sane people do have reason to be concerned, and deeply so, about what is happening now and will grow worse quickly over the coming decades, which, unlike being vaporized by the sun, is something we can control.