Existential Fears -- Cold War vs. Global Warming

Thanks to all, it's been great in helping my friend gain some traction on her work. Here's my take on it:

It's interesting to see the changes between the two mentalities. Even nowadays I find the concept of the Cold War absolutely terrifying. Two overstrung nations, paralysed by fear and fingers poised to annihilate one another. No possibility of reprieve, no chance of a "limited" nuclear exchange and it was only down to people like Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov who chose not to retaliate, even when their early warning systems had detected an attack. The remarkable deluge of fear circulating between the Western and Eastern Blocs makes the whole situation seem utterly insane in retrospect, yet for many decades it was considered a norm. Sometimes in certain political climates it was even encouraged. There's a distinctive fatalistic streak running through the latter decade too, despite perestroika and other efforts that were actually causing the Cold War to cool down significantly. Having read media from the period, it seems like people thought that World War III was inevitable with humanity just being a flash in the pan.

Then you look at the worries behind climatical acceleration and the consideration is a great deal more Asiatic than traditionally European in approach. The understanding that it isn't we who will suffer, but our children who will be forced to live in that environment. The difference between having a gun pointed at your head and wandering around the desert slowly dying of thirst, I guess. It's difficult to comment on being right in the middle of it and it doesn't have a face like the Cold War did. There is no single community that can be accused and, from an anthropological standpoint, human collective groups are very, very bad at fixing a problem without attributing blame. You can look at a number of recent and ancient crises that would have been very easily resolved if people had sat down and solved it rather than bicker about who was responsible. The issue doesn't seem to be about fear in this case, it's human greed. There are papers you can read where scientists have despaired because they've concluded that it is possible to change the world, but it is impossible to change the human condition.

Of course in that respect, we've reached a turning point. It's no longer about saving the environment, it's about saving ourselves. Nature will endure, it always does, but it will do so without us and it will be a slow death for our species with no one to step down from the console. The sky will choke and the land will heave and humanity will be less than a drop in the ocean. Our legacy will be to leave a world of drowned and burning children. That's the fear.