This clip features a scientist who claims there’s a 50/50 chance that this year we may see the total loss of summer sea ice from the North Pole, for the first time ever. This could be huge, as far as how the masses perceive climate change. The satellite time-lapse imagery is very powerful (“…visual, quantifiable, measurable,” as the scientist says).

Granted, it would be more overwhelming if there were large populations of humans living there, but the next-worst-thing to seeing human hardship has to be seeing polar bear hardship! And that there is, if the ice goes bye-bye.

One thing that fascinates me is if/when the general public begins to clamor for massive state involvement to “save” our society, in defiance of long-treasured civil liberties (especially “economic” ones). This is less a political fascination than an aesthetic one — I don’t have the special drive that activists possess to shout loudly about stopping certain trends. I do have a rubbernecker’s awe when witnessing large shifts in the relationship between state and individual.

The “War on Terror” has been one such shift, with regards to habeas corpus and wiretapping. Climate change is another; so is the end of cheap oil. I believe the world population will quickly abandon any and all “idealistic” values regarding meddling by the political class when imminent and widespread harm is demonstrated in concrete terms.

Originally published here.