A Climate Change Lesson from Shackleton:
When the Most Rational Choice Seems Crazy
Joe Moncarz, February 2021
The story of Ernest Shackleton and his crew is one of the great survival stories of the twentieth century, and there are many, many lessons to learn from it, especially about perseverance, determination and staying positive. Of course, some would have said that merely Shackleton's idea of walking across Antarctica was crazy. Maybe. But that was not a rational decision. That was a decision born of arrogance and ego. Rather, I'm going to focus on something that happened during their ordeal which is little talked about.
After they had spent months on the boat, trapped by ice, then after the boat sank, months on the ice, they managed to sail on their three lifeboats to Elephant Island. Shackleton and three other crew then set sail across the most dangerous waters on the planet in their 24-foot boat.
Somehow they made it to South Georgia Island where they hoped to contact the whaling station to organize a rescue. But they landed on the wrong side of the island. What's more, the keel of their boat was broken upon landing and they could not risk going back out onto the ocean. They would have to cross on foot the island – an island of steep mountains, perpetually covered in snow and ice, and belted by wind and storms. So off they walked, up and down the steep slopes, often having to turn and backtrack because of impassable and dangerous cliffs and drops.
It was getting late in the day and they where high up on a mountain, when they saw that they could not continue to the other side. Shackleton started cutting steps in the step slope to get back down and try another way. The cutting of steps was taking too long. The sun was going down and they had no gear to keep them alive up in the mountains at night. If they stayed, they would freeze to death. They had to get back down.
Shackleton proposed they slide down the mountain. The others thought he was joking. They thought he was crazy. But no, he was serious. He explained it to them. Cutting steps took too long, and once it got dark they would freeze to death so high on the mountain. They had to get down – and fast. But what about rocks? What about crevasses? It was a possibility. But they had no other choice but to take that chance. So the three of them held on to each other and pushed off. Screaming their way down, 2000 feet, until the snow leveled off. They got down, and continued on, eventually making it to the whaling station.
It's a little detail in a famous story. But I like it. Sometimes the most rational choice does seem crazy at first. And it's especially relevant when we look at the state of the world today and wonder what we can do – specifically, the ongoing mass extinction, destruction of all ecological communities, and the worsening climate crisis.
It should be obvious that everything that we have been doing has not been working. Nothing has helped. The situation is getting worse and worse. The rate of fossil fuel burning is increasing. The rate of ecological destruction and extinctions is increasing. Pollution is increasing. Population is increasing. (And through simple logic, the more people there are, the less trees, plants, and animals there will be. I know, most people have a hard time with the concept of overpopulation.)
As the Guardian recently wrote, in an odd admission: “The world has never met a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems.” (Kind of like how the U.S. did not honor a single treaty it ever signed with Native Americans. There's another lesson for you.)
So here we are. It's late in the day. Some propose slow “transitions” to a smaller economy and a simpler way of life. Yes, excellent idea. But what government will push for that? It's not in their capacity, nor their interest. A depression or recession are considered horrible events, and these are merely slight contractions of the economy. We need major economic depressions by design.
Again, it's late in the day. We can't keep doing the same thing, or life on the planet will continue to disappear. A slow transition, even in the fantasy that governments somehow were interested, is also not good enough. Life is going extinct. The ecological fabric holding life on the planet is crumbling. The climate crisis is getting worse and worse. A slow transition, just like for Shackleton and his men, would mean death.
There is only one thing for us to do. We've got to get down, and fast. We must hold on to each other and slide down the mountain. It's got it's own risks, but again, we have no choice. No technology will save us. No scientists will save us – if anything, they'll make things worse. (Just consider more than 80,000 untested synthetic chemicals, Roundup, asbestos, nuclear radiation, nuclear bombs, missiles, depleted uranium shells, the electric chair, genetically modified organisms, gene-editing, face recognition technology, AI, internet, computers, wireless radiation, Wi-fi, cellphones, cars, – you get the idea.)
We need to pull the plug on fossil fuels, on the profit imperative, on capitalism, on corporations, on shopping malls, and on the idea that modern technology will save us. We have to pull the plug on the industrial way of life.
Sounds scary? Just remember Shackleton and his men – they were scared, too, but they took the plunge in order to survive.
And then they were home.
References
Greenfield, Patrick. (2021 February 22). “'It's in Our DNA': Tony Costa Rica Wants the World to Take Giant Climate Step.” The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/22/costa-rica-carlos-alvarado-quesada-environment-policy-action-aoe
Lansing, Alfred. (1959). Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
After they had spent months on the boat, trapped by ice, then after the boat sank, months on the ice, they managed to sail on their three lifeboats to Elephant Island. Shackleton and three other crew then set sail across the most dangerous waters on the planet in their 24-foot boat.
Somehow they made it to South Georgia Island where they hoped to contact the whaling station to organize a rescue. But they landed on the wrong side of the island. What's more, the keel of their boat was broken upon landing and they could not risk going back out onto the ocean. They would have to cross on foot the island – an island of steep mountains, perpetually covered in snow and ice, and belted by wind and storms. So off they walked, up and down the steep slopes, often having to turn and backtrack because of impassable and dangerous cliffs and drops.
It was getting late in the day and they where high up on a mountain, when they saw that they could not continue to the other side. Shackleton started cutting steps in the step slope to get back down and try another way. The cutting of steps was taking too long. The sun was going down and they had no gear to keep them alive up in the mountains at night. If they stayed, they would freeze to death. They had to get back down.
Shackleton proposed they slide down the mountain. The others thought he was joking. They thought he was crazy. But no, he was serious. He explained it to them. Cutting steps took too long, and once it got dark they would freeze to death so high on the mountain. They had to get down – and fast. But what about rocks? What about crevasses? It was a possibility. But they had no other choice but to take that chance. So the three of them held on to each other and pushed off. Screaming their way down, 2000 feet, until the snow leveled off. They got down, and continued on, eventually making it to the whaling station.
It's a little detail in a famous story. But I like it. Sometimes the most rational choice does seem crazy at first. And it's especially relevant when we look at the state of the world today and wonder what we can do – specifically, the ongoing mass extinction, destruction of all ecological communities, and the worsening climate crisis.
It should be obvious that everything that we have been doing has not been working. Nothing has helped. The situation is getting worse and worse. The rate of fossil fuel burning is increasing. The rate of ecological destruction and extinctions is increasing. Pollution is increasing. Population is increasing. (And through simple logic, the more people there are, the less trees, plants, and animals there will be. I know, most people have a hard time with the concept of overpopulation.)
As the Guardian recently wrote, in an odd admission: “The world has never met a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems.” (Kind of like how the U.S. did not honor a single treaty it ever signed with Native Americans. There's another lesson for you.)
So here we are. It's late in the day. Some propose slow “transitions” to a smaller economy and a simpler way of life. Yes, excellent idea. But what government will push for that? It's not in their capacity, nor their interest. A depression or recession are considered horrible events, and these are merely slight contractions of the economy. We need major economic depressions by design.
Again, it's late in the day. We can't keep doing the same thing, or life on the planet will continue to disappear. A slow transition, even in the fantasy that governments somehow were interested, is also not good enough. Life is going extinct. The ecological fabric holding life on the planet is crumbling. The climate crisis is getting worse and worse. A slow transition, just like for Shackleton and his men, would mean death.
There is only one thing for us to do. We've got to get down, and fast. We must hold on to each other and slide down the mountain. It's got it's own risks, but again, we have no choice. No technology will save us. No scientists will save us – if anything, they'll make things worse. (Just consider more than 80,000 untested synthetic chemicals, Roundup, asbestos, nuclear radiation, nuclear bombs, missiles, depleted uranium shells, the electric chair, genetically modified organisms, gene-editing, face recognition technology, AI, internet, computers, wireless radiation, Wi-fi, cellphones, cars, – you get the idea.)
We need to pull the plug on fossil fuels, on the profit imperative, on capitalism, on corporations, on shopping malls, and on the idea that modern technology will save us. We have to pull the plug on the industrial way of life.
Sounds scary? Just remember Shackleton and his men – they were scared, too, but they took the plunge in order to survive.
And then they were home.
References
Greenfield, Patrick. (2021 February 22). “'It's in Our DNA': Tony Costa Rica Wants the World to Take Giant Climate Step.” The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/22/costa-rica-carlos-alvarado-quesada-environment-policy-action-aoe
Lansing, Alfred. (1959). Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.