"The question is really, as Superchunk observed, “how fast?” Can we make this transition in time to prevent clathrate collapse or the popping of Yellowstone park?
How many billions will die from famine, disease, water-shortages and
toxic air pollution before we clean up the place? How many need to die
before head-in-the-sand deniers get out of the way of those of us trying
to make a difference?
To
me a “climate emergency” means a war footing; and that means waging war
against the deniers first, as they are the real obstacle. I’d be very
happy to see a lot of our current senior political and corporate leaders
hauled up in The Hague and charged with crimes against humanity, and I’d regard that as entirely appropriate. But that’s a fantasy and is, alas, unlikely to happen.
In various countries citizens are resorting to the courts
to force their governments into action, and that’s certainly a pathway
to progress in places where laws are designed to enforce the rights of
ordinary people, rather than simply there to block action against climate change.
The sad truth is that almost no-one really
believes that global warming, and the myriad other issues that stem
from humanity’s abuse of the planet, are truly anything to get too
worried about.
Most
people I know, even those who completely accept that climate change is
real and happening, continue to act as if they believe, deep-down,
despite what they say, that the risks are overstated and, if impacts are
going to be felt, they’ll be felt by other people and way in the
distant, to them, future.
People may say that they accept the science, but they act as if they
The
emergency is upon us. We must urgently and radically change the way we
generate power, fuel, and food, while putting in place adaptation
measures to deal with the global warming already locked into the
planetary system. If we do hit the runaway global warming tipping point,
then no amount of adaptation will be possible. But simply explaining
the facts clearly is usually written off as being alarmist. And that’s
the core of the climate crisis."
See also
