Have Attenboroughs climate comments highlighted the problem with Humans as a species?

David Attenborough’s recent comments about climate change made me think. He suggests, probably quite rightly, that humanity is simply ignoring the damage being caused by global warming and climate change. Well said and correctly said in my opinion. While politicians give these issues lip service and make the right noises, what actually, on a global scale has been done? Have alternative methods of energy production been sufficiently explored? No!. Has the motorist been targeted in a barely disguised plot to squeeze the pocket of the population, under the guise of being green? Yes! Yet the main exponents of travel pollution Trains, Buses and Planes still belch out the black diesel fumes we all know and love. I could go on, however I digress.

I mention public transport because David Attenborough’s views bring to mind a view I hold, and it developed during my time as a bus driver. People are dumb panicky animals.

Don’t for a second think however that I’m calling everyone dumb, a person can be an incredibly bright, insightful, inventive, rational and intelligent person. Humanity en masse however is often dangerous, quick to anger and slow witted. During my time as a bus driver this became an obvious trend, and age wasn’t generally an issue. large groups of kids on a school bus could be equally as troublesome as football fans or masses of shoppers heading for the sales. This led me to believe it was a trait in humanity rather than simply the result of age or what they happened to be doing.

How many times have you seen groups of shoppers wander into the road? Too busy talking and focusing on the next task in hand to notice the car or bus that just had to brake. Dumb.

How many demonstrations around the world have descended into rioting or worse? Dumb.

Who saw the footage of Black Friday? People piled into shops running each other down in the pursuit of a bargain, half of whom didn’t even know what they wanted. Dumb.

How many times have we seen trouble at sporting events and organised demonstrations? Dumb.

Collectively the human race has done magnificent things, inventing medicine, harnessing the power of electricity (and the Atom), placing men in space and bringing toilets indoors! But the vast majority of these breakthroughs have been individual discoveries or as part of a small team. Never have we as a race, as a species, stood together to end a problem. because despite all our advances, Man is a dumb animal.

Blacker