“Imagine a black hole. Humanity’s lined up before it. Everyone has to march through. Some are at the front of the line. They reach the other side first. Some are at the back of the line. They’re still laughing and joking and pretending, maybe. Nobody much hears from those who’ve gone through, because, well, it’s a black hole. But on the other side, nothing is ever to be the same again.

This is where we are now. We are at the threshold of the Cataclysm. Some of us are now crossing over to the other side, of a different planet, one that’s going to become unlivable. This isn’t “going to happen” or “might happen,” it is actually happening now.

Those are my friends, for example, in the Indian Subcontinent, where eagles are falling dead from the sky, where the streets are lined with dead things.

Extinction. The Event. You can literally see it happening there.

They are the first ones through the Event Horizon, if you like — the lip of the black hole. They are canaries in the coal mine, my Indian and Pakistani and Bengali friends. They are on the other side, and are experiencing the world in the Event. And that world is coming for us all.“

-Umair Haque, “The Age of Extinction Is Here — Some of Us Just Don’t Know It Yet.” eand.co. May 21, 2022.

There’s a couple of things about this article that struck me. For one, while I’m not a physicist, I’m pretty sure a black hole would represent total annihilation. It’s not some kind of phase change. So, it’s a bad metaphor.

Good metaphors use relatable experiences. Some that occur to me is climate change is like having a heart attack. Climate change is like fighting in a war. Climate change is like a Super Fund site. All of these have tradeoffs in effectively communicating an idea, but at least people understand them from their personal experience or from the experiences from those around them. But a black hole? It’s clear the author doesn’t really understand what it means, and the audience probably less so.

The other thing is that while I fundamentally agree with the author’s point, climate change and the current state of geopolitics, suggests that we, as a species, are in for a very hard time ahead. But, what’s the take-away for the reader? No sense in driving now? Ship has already sailed, nothing to do. Train has left the station?

Perhaps these are true. if so, then why even talk about it? If you cannot do anything about the problem, you must bear it. What point is there in talking about it?