Science Used to Make me Feel Good

I always enjoyed doing science, especially when it threw up answers that were counterintuitive. It is rather sad, however, to read the personal observations of a number of climate change scientists, largely in Australia who are, in many cases, retired or nearing retirement, who feel guilty that they have 'failed' to get meaningful action for the next generation (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/08/im-profoundly-sad-i-feel-guilty-scientists-reveal-personal-fears-about-the-climate-crisis). I really don't feel that they should beat themselves up as actual decisions are taken to varied degrees by the public, politicians, papers and pollsters. The scientists are absolutely right in believing that there has been little meaningful action to counter the effects of human-mediated climate disturbance but they were always going to have a tough fight against vested interests and wilful ignorance. Things would have been much worse if we had remained totally ignorant about the likely prognosis (it is well known that some of the original scientists working on the nuclear bomb also ended up depressed).