I graduated from high school the year Carl Sagan gave this speech to congress, 1985. That was a long time ago.

In his speech he basically summed up the climate situation. He does it better than the average person could today, I would guess.

Essential for dealing with the greenhouse effect, Sagan concluded, was a ‘global consciousness’. It “embraces the planet, the future, because we are all in this greenhouse together.”

Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, the Doomsday clock is closer than ever to midnight, 100 seconds. The organization that sets the clock, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, moved it to 100 seconds in 2020. As they moved the clock towards the demise of our species, they noted a new problem, misinformation schemes.

A recent example of misinformation involved somone’s recent hope for the future. Similar to how Carl Sagan concluded the need for a global perspective, there was a hope for a global reset. Prof Schwab urged, “The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous future,” But this hope got turned on its head, igniting a conspiracy theory on Facebook.

Listening to Carl Sagan’s speech, congress basically knew what needed to be done back in ‘1985. The same steps that are needed are given by the Dr. Sarak Burch, a lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report .