"Anecdotal Evidence" from Dharma Bums

Yesterday's post, "Anecdotal Evidence" posted by Rexroth's Daughter in Dharma Bums, has been on my mind ever since I read it. It's already initiated wide discussion and is worthy of more.

The whole post is a must-read, but I quote the section that really hit home for me:

We are living in a time of great ecological and environmental change. Some have suggested that the damage we have inflicted on the planet has finally gone too far, and we have reached the point of no return. We may in fact be staring at the beginning of the end of civilization, as we know it. Steven Tindale from Greenpeace said, "The earth may be doomed. Certainly the news from the natural world over the last year has been unremittingly bad: the oceans acidifying and less able to absorb carbon; the permafrost melting and giving up its methane ... All these things suggest that the positive feedbacks may have kicked in; we may have crossed the threshold." Yet, somehow, this information is not alarming enough to get any real news coverage. How that is possible, I really don't know.