James Bridle on dealing with situations like climate change (from an interview for his new book ''NEW DARK AGE'')

James Bridle on dealing with situations like climate change (from an interview for his new book ''NEW DARK AGE'')

James Bridle’s book ''New Dark Age'' contends that an overload of information has hurt our ability to understand the world. It was released in the USA on July 17, 2018

Question: ......How do you deal with situations like climate change, where you need really large-scale systemic change?

James Bridle: ''There’s a couple of things I talk about regarding climate in the book, and one of them is to be really, really super direct about the actual threat of it, which is horrific, and it’s kind of so horrific that it’s difficult for us to think about. Simply the act of articulating that — making it really, really clear, exploring some of the implications of it — that kind of realism is a super necessary act.''

''We’re still fighting this rear-guard action of, “Oh, it’s manageable,” “Oh, we can mitigate it,” or “It’s not really real.” We’re still, despite everything we know, everything people say, stuck in this ridiculous bind where we seem incapable of taking any kind of action. And, for me, that’s part and parcel of this continuous argument we have over numbers and facts and figures and the data and information that we’re gathering, as though this is some kind of argument that has to be won before we do anything. That excludes the possibility of doing anything concrete and powerful and present.''

James Bridle’s book ''New Dark Age'' contends that an overload of information has hurt our ability to understand the world. It was released in the USA on July 17, 2018