It is a question of awareness and will, of courage and clarity, of a call that can mobilize and inspire to action, action beyond our one-step-at-a-time, business-as-usual, it’s-just-a-phase, it-may-be-a-problem-but-it’s-not-my-problem attitudes and assumptions.

I took an oceanography class at the University of Maine almost 30 years ago and all of these factors and trends, and predictions were there. We are painfully and tragically slow to move on scientific insight unless there is an immediate personal benefit. None of us understand particle physics and microwave technology but we are all happy to have a popcorn button and the ability to munch in 90 seconds. We play second guess the experts because we don’t want to hear, don’t want our cozy pattern of consumption to be interrupted. We are waking but too slowly and already too late.