August 22, 2016

The Beatles are overrated and I don't care what you say

editor:	Gurmeet Singh

They are though. I mean they're credited with changing the entire notion of youth, reshaping musical structure forever - even cited with helping shape our modern idea of peace. Honestly, it's not true. Also, a lot of their songs suck.

We live in a culture of overrating everything. Every movie has five stars, every book is unputdownable. Every event is the worst in all history - and every celebrity is Jesus Christ. It's probably no surprise then that when we talk about climate change, it doesn't actually seem like it might be the most devastating thing to happen to the planet since the extinction of the dinosaurs. A really unmissable event! A tour de force of global destruction! Mother nature is definitely up for an Oscar after this performance.

So when July was officially recorded as the hottest July on record globally, and August will be recorded as the warmest August ever globally, and so on, and so on, why don't the warnings work? It seems that the combination of incremental temperature changes and the drastic language seem to clash. The old idea of putting a frog in a pot and slowly boiling it works better than tossing the frog into a boiling pot also applies: When we scream about the world going to hell, well, it just doesn't feel like it. But man, it is a hot day.

It's August. It's hot. People are running around Rio, and the world is going crazy for it. It's truly the best sporting event of all time. Usain Bolt did a cool thing. So did Michael Phelps. But the environment didn't do anything. So it seems people's attention won't be won over with big statements and dire predictions. Also, people are easily distracted - did you see Usain Bolt do that cool thing? Best race ever.

The solution seems to lie somewhere in making climate change interesting - not drastic. How do we make it interesting, and even desirable to talk about? Actually I'm not sure. Who cares? Here comes the sun....