squandered opportunity

The World Climate Conference held in Geneva in February of 1979 accrued the collective will of some fifty nations and the public and scientific consensus that climate change was a real and imminent threat to the survival of human kind and for the next decade, it seemed that we were on the cusp of effecting real and permanent change and the that the course towards global catastrophe was not inevitable.
During this decisive time, however, a group of determined scientists failed to convince and influence the requisite governmental participation and policy—which yielded to business interests and unchecked capitalism.  The New York Times presents a truly compelling, long-format, multi-media essay comprised of interviews and anecdotes that helps one to appreciate how close science came to saving the environment and ourselves from what we can now only to defer as long-term disaster and negotiating what we’re willing to sacrifice since we’ve pivoted past any better outcomes. This narrative on the wilful abrogation of leadership is not to exhaust nor to resign the rest of us to our impending doom but rather demonstrate that the future will not look like the past and that we are all stingy with our imagination and rallies us all to be aware of the consequences of our choices.  The warnings are not new.  Though we may be on course for disaster and have remained at the same bearing, we are not beyond redemption.