The Saber-toothed Tiger on the Cat Toilet

Don't even think about it - is the title of the book I recently finished. Mister George explains how we manage to ignore the greatest threat to humanity - climate change. It is also thanks to our Stone Age sparrow brain that we do little to nothing about it, even though the situation is urgent. Our gray matter still has the same structure as our club-swinging ancestors in their caves, so we may not be psychologically capable of responding to such a complex danger.

There's the evil saber-toothed tiger threatening my Kevin and our Chantal, I fight this villain, defeat him (or not) and everything is fine again. When it comes to climate change, it's neither an evil animal nor a persistent virus, but a complex threat that sneaks invisibly into our lives. We ourselves are the saber-toothed tigers, and the only thing we could fight is our inner selfish child that runs amok uncontrollably.

With the True Story, it's not about flying, reckless corporations, eating meat, and having children, but it's about our fear, rejecting facts, and struggling to take responsibility for our own actions. Instead of grabbing the tiger by the teeth, we invent our own stories according to the motto Believe what you want to believe. It has never been easier to build a thought castle according to our taste by googling the right stories on the internet. Like in the story of The Emperor's New Clothes, social norms (wife, children, and garden gnome) help us to continue wallowing in our comfort zone.

Like an Indian mahout, we believe we have the elephant under control. In reality, however, this six-ton creature does with our reason what it wants. The best example of being driven by our emotions is parents. The care and protection of their children are one of the strongest evolutionary drives to show selflessness. However, wise men and women in white coats have shown that parents are not very concerned about the future of their offspring, as they are distracted by changing diapers and no one likes the thought of a suffering child. Having a child triggers a whole arsenal of avoidance strategies and perceptual errors in parents. The mammoth has long since thrown off its rider and is running away. Woe to him who dares to mention that children are the factor with the greatest negative impact on climate change. It's not about the legitimacy of children, God forbid, but about the decision of parents to have (another) child. But stop! I am neither an Indian elephant nor an angel, but a CO2-emitting human being, like everyone else. Although I am very tempted to write about guilt and innocence, I do not want to become the accuser and come up with an alibi that proves that I am "greener" than the Müller family next door. We all need to cool down our inner warming a bit and become problem solvers instead of problem seekers.

I live in an interesting time. I am extremely curious whether humans will manage to overcome their selfishness or whether they will become a failed biological experiment. Besides eating and pooping, what humans need are friends, trust, passion, beauty, and laughter, not another car, another short vacation in New York, or another child.

Although evolution has equipped us with a modified monkey brain that seeks the best possible personal benefit, there seems to be some hope emerging. In times of dire distress, humans have always developed selflessness and have evolved from saber-toothed tigers to civilized housecats that finally use the cat toilet.