Feb 16 2009
Burning Rainforests
We all keep hearing about climate change (or global warming) and we think, well why doesn’t someone do something about it? The fact is, governments really aren’t doing anything substantial about the quickly-rising C02 in the atmosphere even though they have known it was happening for a long time. People within the U.S. military have been warning about the destablizing effects of climate change for years, publicly since at least 2005. Yet our governments are not taking bold action to stop C02 emissions when they very well could. Why? It’s still seen as politically “dangerous” to political careers to act on climate change. So governments send envoys to attend endless meetings about it instead. The envoys then return to their respective countries and report, and then nothing happens except more plans for the next round of meetings. When the Poznan, Poland meeting ended in December, about all anyone agreed on was some technological ideas, and deforestation, which hasn’t stopped, and to meet again in Copenhagen this December.
What if they all keep meeting and meeting and no real action is ever taken? Well, then, it’s goodbye life on earth as we know it. GHG (greenhouse gasses) continue to rise, the weather becomes more unpredictable, and the planet approaches more dangerous tipping points that threaten all life on earth.
One argument being made by so-called reasonable people is that the economy world-wide is in such dire straits that we can’t really focus on anything but economies at the moment. That’s wrong for at least two major reasons. Fighting climate change seriously would create tens of thousands of jobs, if not more. And no one can afford to ignore the largest threat to life on the planet that we have ever faced. The economy, war and terrorism are big problems, but they are nothing compared to climate change and the fact that humans are bringing it on. Once the magic amount of C02 is in the atmosphere, it’s probably not coming out. Even if we can find a way to remove it, we can’t return ice sheets to Greenland or the Antarctic if they melt and the sea levels rise as a result. That’s permanent. How many major world cities are on coastlines that will be submerged by rising sea levels? A lot of them.
Why isn’t the media talking about this more? Because they are run by large corporations who don’t want their brand or their products threatened by regulations that may come with fighting climate change. The media has an obligation to inform the public about climate change and they are failing dismally. Most scientists know that they aren’t getting their message across very well, with the media or without it. There is always Youtube, of course, but only people interested in this subject search for those types of videos in the first place. ( I will have another post following this one about the problem with communication.) I will keep writing this and providing evidence until people start reading this, commenting, and deciding the problem is not only worth their notice but worth spreading the word. Apparently, not nearly enough people yet know about climate change. I have found this to be true among people I talk to, so obviously, we have to do something to change that. And as we figure that out, the situation becomes more serious every week.
Last weekend, the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) met and featured several very good speakers. One was Christopher Field who said a few things reprinted below.
