Climate Change has troubled me for years now. I remember back in the late 1970’s a huge hole in the ozone layer appeared due to the use of CFC’s (Chlorofluorocarbons) used in everything from air conditioners to propellant in aerosol cans.
As the years rolled on, I remember quite a few warnings about acid rain destroying our freshwater lakes and rivers. Then, in quick succession, it was nuclear accidents, oil and chemical spills, and PCB’s (polychlorinated biphenyls) polluting our drinking water, causing terrible cancers. The world seemed doomed as we realised the extent of damage we’d created. But suddenly, the media reports all went quiet.
I, like most people, didn’t give it a lot of thought at the time… But mainstream media dropped the stories about such problems and focused on the 1980’s with its rebounding economics, new music tastes and outrageous fashions. The world was focused on opulent, narcissistic living and corporations cashed in on the rush to buy, buy, buy. The madness of ‘material acquisition’ continued well beyond the 1990’s until abject greed caused economic collapse to start rearing its ugly head.
But the environmental problems were, and are still there and worsening. Lots of hard working scientists knew it. So did the polluting industries. But until the whistle blowing by frustrated, (and government silenced), scientists began, the general public was kept intentionally, uninformed….
So here we are, nearly 40 years on and still nothing really constructive has been done to mitigate any of these pollution predicaments we have created. In fact, we have added more nuclear, more gas and coal, more oil, more chemicals and more aerosols to the deadly mix of atmospheric pollutants that now holds our planet in its grip.
Scientists have suggested that we are now living in a different geological epoc, (The Anthropocene) and concurrently living through the sixth mass extinction period known in the Earth’s geological history.
We receive messages about clean energy and changing our ways…and that is great. Many governments are spreading the ‘clean up’ message.
Climate change scotland
Mission Climate Change
The UN is suitably worried and is encouraging everyone to keep with the game plan to reduce global emmissions.
10min climate change update
April 2017 by Scientists.
And CBS news reports on the climate trends seen so far in 2017
But is all this now just ‘arranging the deck chairs on the ‘Titanic.’
The most recent news is worrying…
Permafrost Thaw
Oceans warming 70% more than previously thought
So do climate scientists agree?
It would seem that most climate scientists do agree.
But one particular scientist says that we are not getting the whole story.
Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of natural resources and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. He says that we have entered into the unknown territory of Abrupt Climate Change and predicts that Human Extinctions will come in as little as in 10 years. Yes, you read that correctly – TEN YEARS…maybe even sooner!
So generally, people are not really taking climate change seriously. There are so many videos, talks, news items, scientist speaking out (risking and even losing their jobs), but we just aren’t getting the message. Instead, we ridicule and berate their dedicated work of decades and reduce it to a number of clichés. How awful that we can be so arrogant. But we will pay a price for that. Even the renowned, bubbly Biologist, David Attenborough, is extremely gloomy about our future as a species. But we are not listening.
Instead, we rave about Artificial Intelligence and a robotics dominated world. Why? While those people developing these technologies are surely doing so out of some sense of helping humanity, can they not see the awful potential of these new technologies as powerful weapons against us by the future powers that would single us out as the enemy?
I recommend watching this next YouTube video by Guy, on his ‘Nature Bats Last’ channel (although you can find lots more at https://guymcpherson.com/ ). It perhaps sums up how we should perceive the sudden, and now abrupt climate change for the unknown and unstoppable force it has become.
What can we do, if anything?
Guy recommends reading ‘End Game’ by Derrick Jenson http://www.derrickjensen.org/endgame/ Written in two volumes, it is an account of the end of civilisation.
And Guy also recommends an online resource for free download at https://underminers.org/ written by Keith Garnish. The name here, ‘Underminers,’ implies the sort of anarchy we might require to adjust society to being one that actually serves our existence.
These recommendations might appear extreme, and I cannot say if they give us any solutions (especially as I have not yet read them), so… I would say, live as kindly as you can, connect with your neighbours, try to be ecological, use manpower wherever possible (ride a bike or walk instead of using a car) and live simply, reduce your waste, but also reduce your purchase of anything unnecessary or wasteful. Try if possible to learn how to do things as if you were on a self sustaining camping trip with only the barest of essentials. This will all help you to adapt during the worst of the climate change events to come. You need to be resourceful and capable of surviving extreme and fast changes, especially if you have to move away from future flooded coastlines. As Guy McPherson says, ‘I do not know your personal extinction date.’ Make your life count now! Love yourself and everyone around you.
If we could do everything possible to mitigate climate change right now, this year, do you think we might just stop the worst? That we might just keep our climate stable? I like to think so, but what are the odds that it will happen? They are so slim as to be negligible. A hotter world is coming whether we like it or not!
What else can we do, if the climate is going to keep heating?
Well, let’s start being kind to the animals who will face these awful times with us! My previous post on ‘Why Do We Hurt Animals?’ gives some insights on the importance of learning to communicate with our fellow ‘Earthlings.’ The other species we live with have much more to offer than the objects of food and trinkets that we have turned them into for our own selfish pleasures.
My previous post on ‘Vegan Future’ offers a dietary, and optional choice, but is it really optional? I think it is an inevitable and necessary one if we are going to survive.
The current trend to factory farm animals is unsustainable, cruel, and contributes to climate change and ecological destruction.
Consumption of factory farmed meat is also dangerous to human health. If you do not believe me, you would likely learn for yourself by watching ‘Lucent,’ a 2014 documentary on the factory pig farming industry in Australia. The scenes are typical of the factory farm industry in other countries like the US, Canada, Spain, Britain and many European countries. These are the high industry standards. You wouldn’t want to see the poor ones! I actually had to watch most of this documentary in 15 minute slots at a time. It was the only way I could make it through the whole (and tragic) life of a pig raised for our food.
‘Lucent’ by Aussie Farms
Warning, this is very Graphic Content!
Next post up will be about learning how to be better human beings…
Stargazing Futures 