Tags
Capitalism and Greed, Climate change, Earth, Environment, Extinction, Global warming, Greed, Technology, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future., World aid commission
(Seven-minute read)
Here we all are bombarded by false news, algorithms for profit, advertisements to consume more and more, living in economies that must grow in order to feed the stock exchange that is plundered by algorithms for profit.
And we ask why is it that the world cannot take climate change seriously.
BECAUSE IT IS TURNED INTO A COMMODITY – CARDON CREDITS.
Other than the worthless Paris Climate pledges that are not worth the paper they are written on the world is still in denial with these pledges that will not mobilize nations nor people or make a dent in the mood of complacency.
When we conceal the linkage between global warming and natural disasters, golden opportunities are lost.
Why the disconnect?
Although there are of course many possible reasons, certainly one of them is the shortage of attention given to climate change by the mainstream media.
Many natural disasters such as the wildfires and hurricanes are covered extensively by the national news media but with little or no mention of global warming. Thus, many viewers fail to connect the dots.
In national mainstream news reports about natural disasters, global warming is systematically backgrounded, most often not even mentioned at all.
Headline stories capture the attention of countless citizens and could have educational value re climate change.
The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
Perhaps if every television channel worldwide were obliged under law to allocate one weather forecast a month sole to the effects of climate change it might create some political will worldwide.
There is no point in one country or one industry reducing carbon emissions to comply with the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.
There is a growing recognition that 2C is dangerous with 1.5C now becoming just a political concession.
Increasingly visible damage caused by climate change will shift opinion but too late to do anything about it.
The likely rise in climate-driven refugees or the danger of tipping points that could push the world on to an irreversible path of extreme warming is becoming more and more evident year by year.
Climate change is already happening.
Insects, which are vital for pollination of crops, and plants are almost twice as likely to lose half their habitat at 2C compared with 1.5C. Corals would be 99% lost at the higher of the two temperatures, but more than 10% have a chance of surviving if the lower target is reached.
Although unexpectedly good progress has been made in the adoption of renewable energy, deforestation for agriculture was turning a natural carbon sink into a source of emissions.
Carbon capture and storage projects, which are essential for reducing emissions in the concrete and waste disposal industries, have also ground to a halt.
Oceans are already suffering from elevated acidity and lower levels of oxygen as a result of climate change.
Sea ice-free summers in the Arctic is attracting oil exploration. Britain is pushing ahead with gas fracking, Norway with oil exploration in the Arctic, and the German government wants to tear down Hambach forest to dig for coal.
Reforestation is essential to all of them as are shifts to electric transport systems and greater adoption of carbon capture technology.
However, relying on the untried technology of solar radiation modification and other forms of geoengineering could have negative consequences.
The short of it?
Carbon pollution and climate change mean both more floods and droughts – making it harder and harder for farmers to grow good quality, nutritious food.
The short of it?
There are no jobs on a dead planet.
The short of it?
The time to start solving this problem is now.
For years, fossil fuel companies and utilities have been dumping CO2 into our atmosphere, changing our climate while we pay the cost.
The ones causing the climate crisis should be the ones paying for it. This would require carbon prices that are three to four times higher than for a 2C target. But the costs of doing nothing would be far higher.
We can find billions and billions to pay our sportsmen and woman, our politicians, our lotto winners, our arms and space exploration, the list is endless.
No matter how we frame or present the arguments if we want a world worthwhile living on there is only one solution we must tap into greed, (See previous posts on a World Aid Commission)
All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.