I went to the Royal Engineers museum at Brompton barracks some years ago, and was amazed to see the development in military technology from Bronze Age hillforts right up to the Falklands War and beyond. It was very sobering to see how people have developed the means to kill each other throughout history. I came out of the museum feeling quite despondent and realised that humanity had not learned anything, we are destined to make the same mistakes.
Human beings have evolved to develop a fight or flight reflex; this helps us to deal with immediate threats. However, climate change is not immediate, it has been slowly creeping up and is now virtually on top of us and we still have not been able to do anything about it; the COP's have been glorified talking shops that have achieved nothing.
There is a paucity of intellect, greed, moral bankruptcy, lack of foresight and self-interest that appear as qualifications for people to enter high office and form climate change policy… this is why I have very little hope for the future.