Wolfgang Knorr

We should not kid ourselves: the looming danger of planetary heating is that seismic shifts in our global society will be inevitable, brought about by a combination of voluntary or forced adaptation and impacts, and that a hapless elite, unable to face reality, will sleepwalk us all into catastrophe.

At a time when Western leaders, fearful of losing control, drive us down dangerous confrontational paths – with other countries, or with the biosphere – disobedience, not attention grabbing, is the call of the moment.

There is an uncomfortable question here that we all need to answer: how much do we actually care about the climate crisis? Why would negotiators and activists at COP28 invoke such impossible optimism to dispel a sense of defeat?

With COP28 starting and this time hosted in one of the most intensely carbon polluting countries, it is time to reflect on the where and what of the climate movement. …We need to learn to search in ourselves for the points where false hope is keeping us from really expressing what deep down we are convinced of. In other words, we need to grow up and break the chains of self-censorship…

Therefore, honesty is the only thing I demand of both political decision makers and the scientific experts.

If we can’t even get climate scientists to choose entirely honest words for describing the situation, there is no hope of any meaningful action.