Farce and Tragedy: Civilization, Climate Change, and Canals

Photo by Rikin Katyal on Unsplash

Karl Marx once wrote something along the lines of “history repeats itself: first as tragedy, second as farce”. Sometimes, however, this sequence finds itself reversed. We can in fact point to such an occasion today. Let’s begin with the farce.

In March 2021 a container ship called the Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal, causing one of the world’s most…