President Donald Trump’s effort to do as much as possible as quickly as possible to remake the federal government would gut agencies that have existed for decades or longer. His larger plans would remake elements of the government infrastructure that have been around for centuries.
It all depends on the tipping points. How many do we trigger and when? But that’s the hard part: hard for people to conceptualize, hard to precisely predict. Even worse, “fast” in geological time is still slower than people are able to focus on. We may already be tipping, won’t know until we’re falling out of the boat, and too many people won’t believe it until they’re drowning
Just look at how this feeds climate change denial: for way too long it was difficult for people to see the difference themselves. Even now when we’re so far into it, risking so much, locked into so much change in our future, “so what if we don’t get as much snow as we used to”
It all depends on the tipping points. How many do we trigger and when? But that’s the hard part: hard for people to conceptualize, hard to precisely predict. Even worse, “fast” in geological time is still slower than people are able to focus on. We may already be tipping, won’t know until we’re falling out of the boat, and too many people won’t believe it until they’re drowning
Just look at how this feeds climate change denial: for way too long it was difficult for people to see the difference themselves. Even now when we’re so far into it, risking so much, locked into so much change in our future, “so what if we don’t get as much snow as we used to”