Dear Dr. Peterson,
I have followed your work for some time now. Recently, you became much more vocal on the climate change topic, and you seem to stand side by side with notorious climate denialists and the fossil fuel lobby groups.
I want to understand how someone like you refuses to acknowledge the work of the IPCC scientific community. Why would you ignore the warnings of science? You seem a man obsessed with the truth, with the meaning, and quality of a life (purpose, social contribution). You claim to aim at a higher standard of life (emotional, intellectual, spiritual, ethical).
Would accepting these scientific facts be a too-traumatic personal experience? Are you protecting yourself and your lifestyle? It seems you refuse to look into the darkness of the climate reality. This reality can be very confronting for a man of values like you. My own reckoning was very painful. Yes, we all have been making the wrong choices for too long (enjoying the benefits of fossil fuels and closing our eyes on their negative impacts on the environment). Yes, humanity once again puts itself on a dangerous path.
The human race is able of the best (love, art, science) but also of the worst (slavery, child labor, torture, war, holocaust, mass extermination). Unfortunately, humans are well capable of creating hell on earth. The sudden man-made global warming and the recent collapse of biodiversity will have long-term consequences putting several future generations at risk. I know you care about your children. But what about other children, what about your grandchildren, and their descendants? We have no right to cancel their future.
Nobody is coming to save the earth’s biodiversity or the human race. We need to own our mistakes. Going out of this perilous trajectory will require tremendous collective efforts and changes. The developed western world needs to lead and show how a prosperous and free economy can be sustainable. Humanity always learned and recovered from its errors, it changed course, creating new civilizations to survive and progress.
I encourage you to look deeper into the darkness of the climate reality and to go through the personal struggle of challenging your current understanding of the situation. What you will discover will scare you to the bones, and you may suffer climate anxiety like many younger people. The complexity and the scale of the work to be done may freeze you. We are indeed surrounded by fossil fuels. But if you look long enough, you may see the light and realize that many people are now dedicated to helping humanity change its course in time, keep the Paris Agreement alive, and preserve our garden of Eden. We still have a small window of opportunity to do so.
Please don’t tell me climate activists are looking for a catastrophic event where there is none. Please don’t tell me there is no emergency. It is not about finding a personal purpose or meaning in life, it is about rising to the challenge. The science is clear, the risks are real and already materializing.
I am sure you admire the following personalities: Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, or Lee Kuan Yew. These people decided to stand for a vision and values, they fought for them, and by doing so, they allowed positive collective actions to succeed and transformed our societies. Only courageous men and women of values can lead and make a difference.
Please look again at the dark climate reality, please meet and discuss with more experts in this field. With an open mind, you may see the light!
Yours faithfully,
Nicolas Payen
