The heat is on. Time is running out
- Christopher Prince
- Jan 27, 2019
- 5 min read
The climate change in progress will be more harmful and destructive than previous one
The last time the Earth warmed was about 125,000 years ago. The levels of the ocean were about six to nine metres higher than today, most ice caps melted, there were hippopotamus in Britain and rainforests as close to the poles as Greenland and Antarctica. There were early humans, but they were still living in caves and no civilisations was close to emerge. Yet, the level of carbon dioxide had only increased by 55% compared to its lowest level and because of natural causes whereas it has already increased by 122% now and the process took thousands of years then. The difference with the global warming we are experiencing now is that now it is so much faster and it is human made.
Already, the temperature has increased globally by 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.62 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 19th century and is poised to increase by another 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the 21st century if we do not change anything. More and more temperature abnormalities are recorded every year since 1951 (cf. graph 1).
Graph 1
Source: NASA
More alarming, the concentration in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has never been that high since human life appeared. It actually crossed the no return line around 1950 and has still increased by 33% since and is continuing on an exponential trend (cf. graph 2). This is largely documented now and the evidences of global warming and of the degradation of the Earth environment are all around us. At this pace, all ice caps will melt, the level of the oceans will rise more quickly and higher than in the previous global warming and most of our cities will be submerged.
Citizens of the world are getting involved
More and more citizens in the world are opening their eyes. In France, a group of citizens self-appointed the ‘Case of the Century’ have taken the initiative to sue the Macron government for inaction in face of climate change, especially after the resignation of prominent environment minister Nicolas Hulot who could not do anything. In Australia, the seat of former Prime Minister Turnbull in Sydney wealthy Eastern Suburb Wentworth, considered a safe Liberal seat, went for the first time to an Independent because of voters fed up with both Liberal and Labor parties in government doing nothing to save the environment. Even in the US, thousands marched in New York City, Washington and San Francisco for the climate in protest against global warming sceptic Trump policies.
Graph 2
Governments are deceitful and not playing their roles
If we keep on this path, climate change coupled with the sixth extinction (52% of animals have disappeared since the 1970s according to the WWF) and the dying through overfishing, acidification and plastic wastes, will bring our civilisation as we know it and probably the human race to extinction in the next century. Thus, it is more than time for governments to act or be voted out.
The only way to avoid this fatal destiny is to mitigate climate change and start making drastic changes now:
1. Relinquish the use of all fossil fuels and plastic now
The primary cause of global warming is the release of carbon into the atmosphere, most significantly the burning of fossil fuels to drive cars, generate electricity, and operate homes and businesses.
It is therefore extremely important to stop extracting and using fossil fuels a soon as possible. Financial markets actually are not fooled as they make it already harder and harder to finance investments in fossil fuels as investors know they have no future. The technology is available now to make cars operated by electricity instead of petrol and to generate electricity from non-fossil fuels so it should be used.
Nuclear is not a good solution either as this technology is very dangerous and the treatment of its wastes is not controlled. Nuclear wastes are toxic to life for millions of years and there is no zero risk of accidents. Nuclear accidents already happened in Chernobyl and Fukushima, leaving vast areas of land with toxic radiation to human life for thousands of years and many more could potentially happen. Nuclear plants also have a short operating life and the costs of completely and safely dismantling them has not been fully assessed yet.
The only solution is to go renewable now as sun and wind energy are safe and unlimited. The only concern is that of storage, but solutions are currently being found to this problem. Also, the cost of producing renewable energy is decreasing dramatically as technology advances and production increases. If only parts of the billions of dollars spent to develop nuclear energy had been spent on renewable energies, these energies would already be covering 100% of our uses at a much cheaper cost than our current sources of energy.
In this context, planning the opening of new coal mines or new oil extractions is no less than criminal and governments supporting this are short sighted at best and accomplices at worst.
Plastic should also be eliminated as it is a non-degradable material that is scattering oceans and lands and drives the extinction of many animal species needed for diversity.
2. Change our economic priorities for a non-carbon, non-plastic and less resource-based economy
More broadly, we must accelerate the wake of a fourth industrial revolution that will be using no carbon and as little natural resources as possible.
This may be possible thanks to the digital revolution, but we must solve the problem of growing data centres using more and more energy and releasing carbon in the atmosphere. The energy used in our digital consumption already has a bigger impact on global warming than the entire aviation industry.
Plastic should be and can be also replaced by other recyclable material in all uses as alternatives exist and should be developed.
Businesses have an important role to play in this transformation to lower the digital footprint on the environment and to a non-carbon, non-plastic and less natural resource-based economy.
3. Enhance international economic and environmental cooperation
The graph below shows that the responsibility for climate change since the first industrial revolution in the mid-19th century has been shared almost equally between the US (for 27%), Europe (25%), Asia (China, Russia, Japan, India) (26%) and the rest of the world (22%).
Graph 3
Hence, it is only through enhanced international cooperation and converging actions from the US, Europe, Asia and the rest of the world that climate change can be managed. The power of the Conference of Parties should be developed, and their agreement should be made binding for real results. A real international organisation for the environment should be set up on the model of the UN.
4. Bridge the gaps between the poorer and the richer
Last but not least, all efforts to curb carbon emission will be vain if the gap between poor and rich continues to widen.
Oxford geographic professor Danny Dorling demonstrated how the rich are aggravating climate change because of their consumption of unneeded items like several cars, phones and even houses. And at the other end of the spectrum, poorer people are reduced to degrade the environment in which they live by poaching or polluting just as it is their only way to make a living.
French economist Thomas Picketty demonstrated in his best-seller book Capital in the 21st Century that, as the rate of return on capital is greater than the economic growth, capitalism is causing a dangerous concentration of wealth that can only be reversed by state interventionism.
Thus, government intervention is more needed than ever to repair the excesses of capitalism and try to mitigate if not reverse climate change. This is the last chance of humanity and the 21st century has to be the century of the global clean-up if we do not want it to be our last century.
