So the third episode of Ari Wallach’s documentary is out:

Once Upon a Time Episode 3

What can I say that I have not already said?

In this episode Hayhoe explicitly mentions that (in the US anyway) those who want to mitigate against climate change dare not argue that Americans will have to do with less.

This of course flies in the face of reality.

We have to consume less.

But if that is a politically impossible message, then what we’re left with is inevitable disastrous climate change.

Her kind of activism has completely surrendered to consumerism.

Wallach’s premise in this episode is that human society works by telling ourselves stories.

I guess I can’t argue with that.

But he misses, probably intentionally, the corollary: we also tell ourselves fantasies.

Wallach wants to believe that if we just change the narrative on what the future will be then our future is going to be dandy.

No dystopian stories for him.

And a part of the episode is explicitly showing clips from dystopian cinema masterpieces.

His belief is based on a fallacy: that the reason we are facing ecological crises is because we’ve told ourselves the wrong stories.

But it makes him feel better to believe that if he tells positive stories of the future then the future will be better.

In my view the only way to have a future that avoids great crises is through hard work and sacrifices.

And by sacrifices I do not mean killing people (as humans have done in the past) but buying, and expecting, less.

But I guess that is not popular enough to sell.