The real world and human societies are complex enough to contain all kind of processes, among them those described by Don Aitkin. Unfortunately it’s of very little help to list such processes as they are just a few among a huge number of simultaneous and successive processes. In this respect the posting has the same basic weakness as most other guest postings on this site have had. They all are logical (at least in part), they (almost) all describe something that exists, they are written as if the issue described would be decisive and give an essential blow to the mainstream thinking. They are, however, never sufficient to prove that their issue is really of major significance. In most cases the issues are not that important, but often it’s not possible to give strong evidence in either direction.
Thinking “how did we get into this” may be very useful as a source for ideas about, what may happen in the future. Will there be a continuing, if not monotonous, strengthening of environmental movements, or will there be a backlash that goes beyond the present difficulties in formulating internationally acceptable climate policies? This should be an issue that interests those worried about the climate change even more than those that believe that the AGW is not a serious threat.