Climate Change and Realty Therapy

I have often suggested that we are only a matter of a few to several decades away from Climate-Change-related annihilation, but that matters little to most of us who are protected by a military that that runs on the cheapest, most plentiful, reliable, scalable, and thus the most indispensable fuel on planet earth – fossil fuels.[1]  Fossil fuels also power up the 40 million or so tractors on the planet, along with all of the other indispensable agricultural and distribution


[1] Epstein A (2014) The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, Portfolio/Penguin, p. 65 (Chapter 3 – The Greatest Energy Technology of All Time).

Figure 1. This diagram is also Figure 1 (of 40+ figures) in the book, An Earthly Chance, available from www.AnEarthlyChance.com. As you can see, incremental decreases of fossil fuel burning by European nations and the United States (roughly 10% of the world’s population) are notable, but the other 90% of the world’s population, led by China and other Asian countries such as India, are all greatly accelerating their combustion of fossil fuels dramatically. If you were in a position to threaten the viability of military security or food production in your country, would you restrict your country’s burning of fossil fuels and thus put your citizens at a serious survival disadvantage via starvation or military attack?

hardware, that is required to feed us and Earth’s seven billion plus inhabitants.  No country, including yours, will be willing to make its military vulnerable or to starve its citizens, by limiting the burning of fossil fuels (see Figure 1).

To drive home how militaries of the world are very unlikely to impose restrictions of fossil fuel consumption, carefully read this referenced article[1]: U.S. Military Emits More Carbon Dioxide Into the Atmosphere Than Entire Countries Like Denmark or Portugal:  But no one knows exactly how much, because the Pentagon’s reporting is spotty. A Humvee gets between four and eight miles per gallon; an F-35 requires 2.37 gallons per mile.  Now that you know that restrictions on fossil fuel combustion can neveroccur, until perhaps in a century or three from now when human beings have eliminated indispensable fossil fuels on planet Earth.  Or, as I have expounded on in the book, An Earthly Chance: The Only Sane Climate Change Solution Possible is Science-Based, Economically-Responsible, and Healing of Human Beings and Our Environment,[2] if we invent, manufacture and widely distribute fusion[3] nuclear energy technologies, which could provide clean and unlimited energy and could theoretically rapidly replace the combustion of fossil fuels as the main planetary source of energy.  We may then be able to transition off of fossil fuels quickly and still maintain energy-driven prosperity, military might, as well as feed billions of hungry mouths indefinitely.

This paper is a dose of Reality Therapy,[4] described in Psychology Today as:“Reality therapy is a client-centered form of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy that focuses on improving present relationships and circumstances, while avoiding discussion of past events. This approach is based on the idea that our most important need is to be loved, to feel that we belong, and that all other basic needs can be satisfied only by building strong connections with others. Reality therapy teaches that while we cannot control how we feel, we can control how we think and behave. The goal of reality therapy is to help people take control of improving their own lives by learning to make better choices.”


[1] https://demo.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=401da229-c9a6-49e4-aeab-ab91015553f6

[2] Gant C (2022)  An Earthly Chance: The Only Sane Climate Change Solution Possible is Science-Based, Economically-Responsible, and Healing of Human Beings and Our Environment

[3] Fusion, the combining of hydrogen into helium (what the Sun does), is not the same as fission, which is the splitting of heavy metals like plutonium, and which is typical “nuclear energy.”

[4] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/reality-therapy

The attempt here is to improve “present relationships and circumstances, while avoiding discussion of past events.”  I could review my previous discussions about the Overton Window,[1] in which allowable conflict is politically permitted between opposing groups, such as Democrats who favor the destruction of the fossil fuel industry, and Republicans who resist such attempts to lower fossil fuel combustion.  Here I am more interested in helping “people take control of improving their own lives by learning to make better choices,” and those choices are not within the Overton Window. The choices that could solve Climate Change are relatively unknown and unpromoted, but they are available for your review.[2]  Having recognized the reality that restrictions on fossil fuel burning can’t possibly work (the Democrat position) and that doing nothing will put the survival of life on Planet Earth at great risk (the Republican position), let’s consider how “better choices,” albeit choices that are outside of the Overton Window, can improve our “own lives.”  As the world faces the reality of a massive extinction event, referred to as a Climate Emergency[3] in some circles, in but a few to several decades, “better choices” are indeed called for.

Since no one has answers within the Overton Window, so we must exercise our free-thinking individuality, become somewhat rebellious, and go outside of the window to find the answers.  Since restricting fossil fuel burning won’t work (Democrat approach) and doing nothing won’t work either (Republican position), what is the solution to Climate Change?  As emphasized in my book, An Earthly Chance: The Only Sane Climate Change Solution Possible is Science-Based, Economically-Responsible, and Healing of Human Beings and Our Environment, we need to send carbon dioxide back where it comes from, into our growing soils and the plants and trees that are sustained by it.  There is literally An Earthly Chance that:

  1. Enough human beings, who have been alerted to the dangers of Climate Change, will appreciate that the propaganda inside the Overton Window about Climate Change was all a lie, intended to manipulate the gullible to maximize political power and wealth.

Enough human beings will look outside of the Overton Window to see the authentic solutions to the threat of Climate Change and be willing to act on it.

Figure 2, the last Figure in the book, An Earthly Chance: The Only Sane Climate Change Solution Possible is Science-Based, Economically-Responsible, and Healing of Human Beings and Our Environment. In all likelihood, all four solutions will be required.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window – “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”

[2] See https://kisstheground.com/about-us/  and https://www.4p1000.org/

[3] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-are-living-in-a-climate-emergency-and-were-going-to-say-so/

The conclusion of the book includes a summary diagram shown above (Figure 2) suggesting that four “better choices” are ours to actualize to save our planet, to save future generations and avoid a major extinction event, much of which has already started.[1] 

In conclusion, may I pose a warning:  I am elderly and am unlikely to witness the mass extinction that will surely arrive in but a few to several decades if we fail to make “better choices.”  Reality therapy often does suggest that failure to make “better choices” has potentially dire consequences.  My children, depending on their lifespan, are unlikely to see the extremes of the adverse consequences of failing to act.  My grandchildren, on the other hand, are most assuredly going to witness a hellish, murderous environment if I and others fail to act successfully. 

I hope that you come to understand that, when it comes to Climate Change, that your “better choices” matter a great deal, and I would encourage you to study the details about how you can create powerful and positive impacts on everyone’s future.[2]


[1] https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2610741017?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1 – Unfortunately, many concerned scientists do not appreciate the fact that restrictions on fossil fuel burning is NOT a tenable solution.  Sequestration of CO2 into our agricultural soils and into trees, as well as those solutions outlined in my book, An Earthly Chance, is the solution.  Nevertheless, Attenborough and many others are at least sounding the clarion call that we must act soon.

[2] Gant C (2022) An Earthly Chance: The Only Sane Climate Change Solution Possible is Science-Based, Economically-Responsible, and Healing of Human Beings and Our Environment