We are on thin ice

It is an apocalyptic view that humans and most, if not all, forms of life will face extinction if we, human beings, do not curb the ways in which we have a negative impact upon the planet. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres put it vividly when he said, "Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast." He firmly believes that our world needs climate action on all fronts – "Everything, everywhere, all at once."

I am sure his reference to the eponymous 2023 Oscar-winning film was much appreciated by everyone trying not to get as depressed as Greta Thunberg about global warming.

Where to find any opportunity for lightheartedness in last week’s news about 2023 being the hottest year on record was the big question.

Scientists at the Copernicus climate change service cannot have been laughing at their instruments when they realised on December 31 that every single day of the preceding nine months had been one degree hotter than pre-industrial levels, and half of the total 365 days had registered temperatures 1.5 degrees hotter – the cut-off point for avoiding a slow burn into annihilation. And I bet they did not rush down to their local bar and hail the new landmark of the hottest November in history, when two days registered a record-breaking two degrees increased temperature.

Apparently, this year is going to be even warmer, because the great Pacific Ocean is experiencing the natural El Niño effect, but our heat-making activities are exaggerating the effect.

The welcome chink in the tale of woe, which we must hold on to, is the fact that some governments and people are sufficiently concerned about the fate of the human race to attempt to implement measures to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. It’s a sliver, but it means there is still some hope and we have not yet tipped, even if we believe estimates that we are heading for a three-degree increase if more countries do not stick with their present half-hearted policies on fossil-fuel production and will not earnestly pursue a green agenda.

A world in which fossil fuels are not used to some degree is unimaginable in my lifetime, simply because they constitute such a comparatively cheap and ubiquitous source of energy, not to mention our reliance upon them.

It is also becoming clear that commercial sourcing of alternative energy supplies is not without its own negative impact on the planet. Add their scarcity factor and it gets almost to be a laughing matter – not in a good way. It is a very nervous giggling that does not communicate joy: just the opposite, in fact.

It is a shame. A source of laughter would help us as we wend our way down the path to impending disaster. Laughter is a great antidote to stress. Laughter therapy is widely practised, not just in mental health treatment, since it improves our immune systems by reducing the relevant hormones in our blood. Laughter can alter the dopamine and serotonin activity in our brains, and the endorphins we secrete when we laugh can help us feel more relaxed in difficult moments.

A lesson I learned as a seasoned young traveller was the powerful weapon that is laughter when in threatening circumstances. It can save your life, releasing the other person’s tension and your own and de-escalating the conflict.

Maybe we should laugh at ourselves, rather than at our situation. It is funny, after all, that we humans do really stupid things which we know will harm us, but we seem prone to taking risks.

We know global warming will send the richest among us to set up home and shop on another planet somewhere and that the rest of us will have to stay here and perish, but we just carry on as if we did not have that knowledge.

It is not charitable to laugh at idiocy in others, but it is perfectly fine to laugh at oneself. So I recommend doing just that. Developing a sense of the ridiculous might clear our heads enough to lead us to positive action, maybe even to a sense of satisfaction.

Now that is a thing – learning to block out the noise and finding a source of joy in the small things that actually make us free.

I read a wide-ranging essay full of interesting references in The Atlantic by social scientist Arthur C Brooks about why we cannot sustain satisfaction – the joy of fulfilment of our wishes or expectations. He concluded that the secret is in managing what we want rather than what we have. We have a lot if we would take the time to focus.

As private individuals we cannot make policy, but we can govern our own actions and lifestyles that may contribute to global warming. Action there can give life meaning and lift our spirits.