publish or be damned

a friend recently drew my attention to the edge annual question for 2005 which is "what do you believe to be true but you cannot prove?". A range of authors posited their beliefs about many things, be it an aspect of their speciality or wider issues they believed critical at this juncture in history.

the latter is surely less self-indulgent. to be given the opportunity to publish an answer to this question is to have an opportunity to influence a great many people; a redux of the article was published in newspapers all over the planet.

a blog is a publishing medium. and so, the things i believe to be true but cannot prove are:

that global warming is already here, and will accelerate faster than anyone imagined.
that it will destroy us.
that our governance will continue to do too little too late, building barricades rather than eradicating emissions.
that we are all to blame for refusing to accept the reality that we must give up our cars and change our way of life to prevent calamity.
that our children wil ask, 'why did you forsake our future'
that many people are too ignorant to realise that they are doing so
that democracy is poisoned, it is too expensive for new views to be represented and proportional representation is rare. in short: democracy cannot be reactive enough to the problem
that our destruction will ultimately be down to our short-termism, enshrined in 4 year democratic cycles & credit addiction (spend not save) amongst other things. we are not equipped to take the longview that saving ourselves demands.

that the world is a very depressing place

that over 500 cars passed this netcafe window in the 5 or 6 minutes I have been typing this. in just one road of just one city, in just one country.