Welcome to a discussion about the upcoming 5th Revolution in the US, which I’ve titled the “Revenge Revolution.” For more about the Revenge Revolution and the author, click “About the Author” tab.  Periodically I write a “sense check” to assess whether a revolution in the US is possible or whether the entire exercise is based on a statistical aberration — i.e., a roughly 50-year cycle between major upheavals in the US Entry #476 was the most recent “sense check.”

BEGIN ENTRY #497: An often-told allegory is about the actions of a frog placed in a kettle of water. The story goes that if you put the frog in cool water and then turn up the heat on the stove the frog stays in the water.  Apparently, the frog does not notice the incremental change in water temperature and stays in the kettle and ends up being cooked to death.

The story also claims that if you toss a frog into a pot of hot water, not even boiling, the frog at once recognizes the problem and jumps out. 

What does the frog in the water story have to do with global warming?  Entry #496 outlined an idea to possibly jar the public into thinking more seriously about the consequences of global warming. The entry included a quote from Everett Dirksen, longtime Senator from Illinois, about how to change minds of the public.  “The mind is no match for the heart in persuasion.”  

To get a sense of the public’s concerns about global warming, I sent an email to a group of family members, friends, and a few business colleagues. The note asked the recipient to list 3-4 concerns, if any, about global warming. The note emphasized there were no “right” or “wrong” answers, just their individual answers.

Not everyone responded – welcome to the world of market research – but a number of people did. Respondents noted concerns about rising seas, more extreme weather, how animals will be affected and longer-term negative impact on food production.  Several of those surveyed had grandchildren and expressed concern about the effects on their grandchildren over time.

A couple of people, and I suspect a few more who didn’t respond, indicated they had no concerns about global warming. One colleague in a business venture claimed that since the earth’s ecosystem is a closed-loop system, any disruption to the ecosystem will cure itself over time. Therefore, he had no concerns about the consequences of global warming.

What was most notable, however, was no one in the group viewed global warming as a hair-on-fire problem. Maybe I’m too close to understanding the potential consequences of global warming, but you’d think someone would be screaming, “we’ve got to start seriously addressing the problem now!”

The lack of hair-on-fire concern was even more puzzling given the makeup of the survey group.  The recipients of the survey were heavily weighted toward those with at least a four-year college degree. Politically the group was more liberal than conservative. Ages ranged from 21 to 95.

The lack of concern about the need to immediately ratchet up efforts to address causes of global warming reminded me of the frog in the kettle of water.  Incremental change – the water gradually getting warmer – did not create a sense of urgency to take action.  Only when there was a sense of crisis – jumping into hot water – was action taken. 

Society seems to be behaving similarly to the frog.  Without some sense of crisis – for example, you’re all going to die soon or something like that – will we, societal we, likely agree to take action.  But just like for the frog, waiting results in catastrophe. END ENTRY #497

Other Topics. Interested in more info about climate change, what’s required to electrify a fleet of cars/trucks, what it was like to work day-to-day with Lee Iacocca and an array of other topics? Visit another page of this website, https://usrevolution5.com/jrd-thought-comments/