I enjoyed Dr. Aaron Sachs talk on environmental humor, or lack thereof.  His talk was interlaced with funny anecdotes as well as videos.  But looking deeper into the emotion reveals that humor is one of the most difficult human emotions to comprehend.  It is very circumstantial: it can mitigate the stress of a terrible situation, be used to put people at ease, or even attack and mock an opponent.  Regardless of its variety of uses, the absence of humor in the discussion of climate change and environmental conservation is curious.

Upon reflection, I believe that climate change proponents may find the situation too grave to mock. If climate change is as serious as some scientists make it out to be, then we are marching headfirst into our own extinction.  Personally, I would have trouble making light of a situation and downplay it with humor, especially when diminishing the danger of climate change can exacerbate the problem.  By mocking climate change or making light of the situation, the opinion of the populous can change from a veritable threat to a minor inconvenience. When the opinion of the general population changes, the rhetoric and focus of the politicians we elect also transforms.  As such, when we make light of climate change, and continue to treat it as an offhand threat – as we have been doing for the past 50 years – we may be paving the way for our extinction by refusing to act.  I believe that humor is vital to our society, and when there is no other option, it can add a silver lining to a bad situation.  However, as long as it is not too late to change, as long as we can reverse our destruction of earth’s environments and climate, I will respect and neither make light of nor downplay the possibility that climate change will be the cause of human extinction.