Trying to conserve a privileged global position makes change traumatic for the US.

We know that the warming rising seas will swallow entire island nations that are about 25 percent of the UN vote and perhaps at the end, even our civilization. This realization is traumatic and the first reaction to trauma is denial. Since there is some remaining scientific uncertainty, a natural response is to deny that change is occurring. This is natural but it is very dangerous.

After denial comes anger and finally, acceptance.

Climate change is new and complex. We don't have all the answers.

We are in the midst of the 6th largest extinction event in the history of the plant and the first caused by human action.

Changing the world's oceans to increase their uptake of CO2, as other geoengineering solutions propose, is equally dangerous, as the increased resulting acidity of the oceans kills tiny crustaceans, such as krill, that are the basis of the pyramid of life on the planet as we know it.

While denial leads to certainty, it is only the certainty of death. This is true for individuals and also for civilizations.