Strikingly similar to the effect of Climate Change on humans ...

As a species, we are transfixed by the spectacle, by the weirdness and the
"WTF? Haven't seen that before?" nature of events and get so engrossed in
merely watching that we don't pay attention to the danger.

In that video, one rabbit was smart and went to ground on seeing the stoat.
The other was doing the equivalent of sitting on the couch, eating popcorn
and watching the entertainment right up to that "Oh F*ck" moment.

K&R. That headline alone needs to be recognised far & wide.

> Nature: "Current models of climate economics assume that lives in the future
> are less important than lives today, a value judgement that is rarely scrutinized
> and difficult to defend..."

Personally, I'd take it further still (yet still be accurate):

"Current models of climate economics assume that lives in the future
are less important than short term profits today."

"What a silly argument." Good comment but misplaced.

It actually applies to your previous sentence:
> The world economy and society would utterly collapse without airplanes.

Neither the "world economy" nor "society" depend on airplanes.

Planes make some aspects more convenient (for sure) but "depend"? Not so much.

Here in England, we have had two absolutely delightful "collapses" since 2000
as a result of a) the terrorist inspired US flight shutdown in September 2001
and b) the Eyjafjallajökull inspired European flight shutdown in April 2010.

Both caused inconvenience to a small (globally microscopic) subset of the world's population
(mostly through people being stranded and unable to fly *back* to their homes).

Both caused clear & quiet skies of a nature that had simply been unimaginable by many
people prior to the events.

Neither caused the world economy to crash.

Neither caused global society to collapse.

In fact, I'd love a similar "collapse" like that every year.



If you want to introduce it in a gentle way rather than the big bang shutdowns
of the above, simply tax the ******* fuel for planes at the same rate as the
European governments do for car fuel and ramp up the tax annually until the
aircraft industry goes the way of the buggy-whip makers.

That will make for a "soft landing" that should assure even you of the fact that
air travel is, has been, and will always be a luxury, not a necessity (and certainly
not something that is critical to holding up the world economy or society).