Climate Change (scroll down below)

Environment Matters

Climate Change

It is clearly documented that 95% of climate scientists agree that climate warming is driven by carbon and methane emissions that are man-made. 97% of 12,000 peer-reviewed climate science papers agreed that we are in fact causing climate change. But only 16% of Americans realize this in a phenomenon that is called “the consensus gap” which is perpetuated by a mass media that is captive to the oil and gas industry. The global warming is being caused by our consumer-driven economy which is fueled by burning fossil fuels: coal, natural gas, and oil which spew CO2 into the atmosphere, as well as our consumer, agricultural, and food animal practices that have not yet adapted to changing conditions. The worldwide temperature of the planet has already increased by over 0.8°C above pre-industrial levels (here is the link to a graph of temperature increase over the years). The last 16 of 17 years have also been the hottest years on record for the planet. We've seen extremely hot temperatures recently for example in Iran with a heat index of 165 °F one year. We've seen severe droughts hitting regions such as Syria and Africa causing widespread famine and civil unrest. In addition, this bit of heating is melting the permafrost in the Arctic which could cause a chain reaction which could make this planet unlivable. We are already seeing widespread crop failure in the Midwest of the US. So this problem is even starting to hit the wealthiest and farthest removed people, many of whom refuse to acknowledge that this problem is real.

Climate change changes weather, creates violent storms, and that threatens our food source. It threatens our food source because when it is too hot or there is too much or too little rain, crops will not be able to grow and we will not be able to survive.

Global warming also threatens all animal species because animal species are only able to exist in an ecosystem, and the ecosystems are being threatened by changing climate. The Earth is not at our disposal; we need these species to survive. We are all part of a global, interdependent ecosystem. We may not like spiders or wolves but all of these species are necessary to maintain the balance and order of the world.

A couple of years ago, the United Nations warned we only had 11 years left to seriously make changes and emit far less greenhouse gases globally or the consequences will be catastrophic. That may even be optimistic considering tipping points may be closer than we think.

Climate change may trigger chain reactions that may propel us over certain “tipping points”, which could result in further chain reactions which could make the surface of the planet inhospitable to life.

It is also important to review this article from the Union of Concerned Scientists: In this article, “it says the message of the science is that we have consistently underestimated the magnitude and speed of ecological impacts in the past, and that new and alarming feedbacks, tipping points and thresholds continue to be revealed as we learn more.”

In addition, we have heard of trillions of locusts in Africa which is another sign that our ecosystems are in danger and that we are running out of time.

The large number of trees that have fell and the newly common occurrences of “derechos” are more signs that we should also be aware of. These are not just newly planted maple trees but also much older trees that have withstand many Winters before now and are just now starting to have major problems.

Also, peculiar, never-before-seen weather patterns even in the Midwest should be tipoffs of climate change such as 70 or even 80 degrees Fahrenheit days during the month of February, or unusual snowfall well before Winter.

Now, more and more, worse and worse hurricanes are happening in Louisiana, Florida, and Texas as well as other parts of the world. Let us not forget what happened in the Phillipenes and in Puerto Rico.

In 2020, we saw 12 million people forced out of their homes in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh due to severe monsoons, floods, and landslides caused by global warming, and in 2021 it has been Germany and China hit by devastating floods, and out-of-control wildfires in Siberia, Turkey, and Greece. the worst derecho in Iowa damaging 10 million acres of farmland, the hottest temperature on Earth recorded in Death Valley (130 deg F), the first ever fire tornados in California, year six of intense drought and crop failure in Central America, and 15 million people with food and water shortages in Africa. How long are we going to let conditions get worse and worse and the causes of global warming go unchecked?

If nothing is done about this, we are on track to exceed over 7 degrees C warming, which would make much of life on this Earth impossible according to an overwhelming majority of climate scientists world-wide.

However, it has been shown that we can turn our coarse from this with swift action to end fossil fuels, transform agriculture, end dependence on meat, pesticides, plastics, etc. within the next few years, but it must be done swiftly, so we must act now.

This is also not just about the warming but also the devastation and damage to our ecosystems that support life. It is possible, for example, that if all life in the oceans die off, that all life on the planet will die off, because of relationships between these things in the ecosystems that support life that we don't fully understand. 350.org has been warning about these tipping points for years and we are dreading that we may reach a tipping point from which we will never return. Therefore we must act swiftly and decisively and we must act now. The Union of Concerned Scientists notes that we have consistently under-estimated the magnitude and speed of ecological impacts.

One of Extinction Rebellion's demands is to form a People's Assembly that would become a key part of the decision-making process. This People's Assembly is drawn from common people based on a completely random, unbiased process. This demand is often ignored and overlooked by the powers that be and they assume this is just a grab for power, when fact, the purpose of this is simply to ensure that the direction taken is one that is in accord with common sense and compassion and with the priorities of the common people not being ignored.

I think this is a very complex problem, entangled within our economy, our churches, our culture, our mass-media-inforced implicit “way of life” and corresponding implicit understanding that we have certain rights to act in ways that are, to outsiders as well as more enlightened folks, clearly unsustainable and unjust, and our relationship with the higher powers that look over this world. It has also now been extra complicated by the sudden rise to prominence of the new “Black Lives Matter” movement. This is an extremely complex issue. That is why I believe we will need people from all walks of life and all areas of society to truly solve this problem.

Up to 200 species are becoming extinct every single day, so I think you can see that this is an extremely urgent matter.

Also our time to deal with this emergency is running out. Floods are expected to keep on occurring and the sea level is expected to rise 90 feet, since the last time the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was this high was in the Pliocene era when the sea level was 90 feet higher, as Juan Cole pointed out in this blog.

If nothing is done to mitigate this emergency, and there will be widespread displacement, chaos, famine, food and water shortages, and large areas of the Earth that will be completely inhospitable to life.

There is a huge misinformation campaign in the mainstream media to discredit the idea that global warming is a real threat, perpetrated by certain industries (such as the oil and gas industries) that benefit capitalists short-term monetarily at the expense of the planet and the environment, which are not factored into their equations and dismissed as “externalities” that do not fit in their financial equations; although they certainly will down the road in increasing damages. It appears even the US Chamber of Commerce may also be one of the principle agents and funders of this huge misinformation campaign to discredit the science on global warming, which flies in the face of much of the credible science of integrity held by 97% of the climate scientists. Why, after all, do you suppose the snow and ice in the North Pole is now almost 50% the size it was in 1980, as clearly documented on the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, but curiously not on Google Earth which also shows the Earth going back in time, but does not show the polar ice caps for some reason.

Skeptical? Approach this from a scientific point of view and review all of the real evidence, not the emotional or religious pleas, and consider also how we are hearing now that about 200 species are going extinct every single day, as millions of species are becoming extinct, and that we are really right now in what is being called the sixth mass extinction.

Scientists have long said that global warming to 4°C simply must not be allowed to occur. But island nations such as the Marshall Islands have tried to set the target much lower, to only 1.5°C, because these islands will literally be underwater. Indeed, places like New York, Florida, and California as well will also be underwater. The massive flooding during the Summer of 2021 in New York and hurricanes in New York are a reminder of this.

If nothing is done soon, we are on target for reaching 7°C global warming, which would be completely catastophic and inhospitable to most, if not all, life on Earth, according to an overwhelming majority of climate scientists world-wide. This is indeed an emergency.

Greta Thunberg, a schoolgirl from Sweden, has been going around the country speaking on this in many great and truthful speeches and trying to explain to adults that we should be scared and that we must act as if this is a real emergency, because it is, but it won't effect most of the adults, it will effect their children, and so we must begin to take this to heart. She started a campaign called Fridays for Future where school children go on strike and don't go to school because of the inadequate attention to the Climate Emergency and its weight upon the future.

Scientists have shown that in order for life to be maintained on the planet long-term, we need to keep the CO2 levels in the atmosphere to 350 PPM or lower (as well as stop destroying so many eco-systems such as rich rain forests). We are already above 400 PPM now. We need to reduce the level of CO2 in the atmosphere to return to the 350 PPM level. However, in our current consumer driven economy, many of us have not yet put on the brakes. The leaders, politicians, and media need to enact policy, education, and message changes to address these issues, as agreed during several different international agreements including the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015 by all 193 member nations of the UN incuding the US as well as the Paris Climate Treaty from 2015 that has not been followed very well so far but that which we should really start to work on today.

Because of the problem of global warming, scientists say we must literally leave much of the coal, oil, and natural gas in the ground if we are going to achieve not raising our global temperature more than 2° C, which is necessary to prevent major catastrophe or even annihilation of the human race (the World bank says “there is also no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world is possible”), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR4 synopsis says “unmitigated climate change would, in the long term, be likely to exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human systems to adapt.” When the politicians say that it is not “widely accepted” that global warming is a real phenomenon, what they are really saying is that they are unwilling to accept conventional wisdom even though without such leadership within the next 5−10 years, the very existence of the human race is in jeopardy.

It is critical to let our politicians and media people know to be made accountable for the climate crisis that we're dealing with and enact policy and media changes that affect energy use and consumerism. Please call your senators, elected officials, and media and let them know it is critical to make changes, and make changes in your own life to eliminate the use of fossil fuels as much as possible and get away from animal-based diets and other similar changes, and you can also get involved in protests, demonstrations, and legislative processes to continue to spread the education and knowledge to the people and politicians that enact policies. The planet really needs your help!

Many scientists also point out that we really have no carbon budget left and must stop all new fossil fuel projects at once and that we must ramp down fossil fuel usage immediately. Many even say that we need to have carbon capture solutions as well, but so far these solutions are in their infancy and not cost-effective at all. One very good carbon capture method is planting more trees. This must be part of the solution, but also not cutting down trees that already exist, especially ancient forests and rain forests. Right now in Brazil a big problem is that they are cutting down large parts of the Amazon Rain Forest to make way for land for grazing for the meat industry, which is really harmful to the climate because it is removing this natural carbon absorber.

So it is critical that we begin the process of widespread change to our ways of lives, systemic changes to our economy, and to begin to take this seriously and leave fossil fuel reserves in the ground, including the reserves in Alberta, Canada, of which Line 3 is a primary outlet for. The government can rearrange the way it does things and redistribute food and necessities directly irregardless of money, and then get people reorganized working on things that benefit people and the planet, rather than everyone being slave to a dysfunctional system based on money that is wrecking the planet.

A government study also shows that climate change is already costing tax payers billions of dollars, and this price tag will just keep increasing.

Still wondering whether our climate is changing? Check out this link.

There are various plans for getting to 100% renewable energy necessary to meet the Paris Climate Accord goals of keeping global temperature rise below 2°C necessary to prevent trillions of dollars of damages, global catastrophe, and possibly the collapse of civilization.

The IPCC typically shows graphs of having us reach 0 carbon emissions in the 2040-2070 range. Many have interpreted this wrongly to say that we have until 2050 to reach 100% renewable energy. We need to start now and really decrease our emissions by about 7% each year if we want to have any hope to reach this goal.

A type of Greenwashing revolves around the phrase of “Net Zero Emissions”. This is a deceptive phrase for the reasons discussed at this link, because it involves a kind of carbon-trading scheme that in reality does not actually accomplish the goal.

Real solutions to the problem are more systemic and widespread such as this action plan that I propose, which could be worked towards quite quickly such as these measures being adopted by Executive Order within the first 100 hours of a sympathetic president being elected, except that politically this cannot be achieved in the current political climate. To work towards a proper political climate, I had proposed a Direct Mailer initiative from an authoritative source, with a complete public forum to bring everybody up-to-speed, but this effort has gone nowhere despite my best effort the last 2 years.

Another attempt at a systemic solution to this problem is to admit more Indigenous leadership, to allow those more familiar with living in harmony with nature to advise us going forward. There have been plans advanced by Indigenous environmentally conscious elders such as the Regenerative Economy plan.

Extinction Rebellion have stated that we really need to reach 100% renewable energy by 2025 to realistically begin to achieve the change that is needed to save the planet and a majority of life from extinction. This will be very challenging, but not impossible, in the current political climate. That is why many bold activists had stepped up with aggressive NVDA actions, especially starting in around 2018 with Extinction Rebellion shutting down London gathering International media attention, and in 2019 all over the world as well.

The truth of the matter may actually be more severe. Some say we have very little time left before the collapse of civilization if something is not done right away. This roughly coincides to when all the Arctic ice cap and the permafrost will have been melted and we may enter a tipping point beyond which there may be no return. For example, if all life in the oceans die off, since this is the base of the food chain, it may end up destroying the eco-system of the entire planet.