Saturday, January 14, 2017
How Fast is Enough?
A story in The Guardian reminded me of how I've backed away from posting on climate change lately. The headline reads, "New study confirms NOAA finding of faster global warming." The long and short of it - the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency reported that global warming as coming on even faster than expected and subsequent research confirmed the claim.
The fact is it's an important story, something we all need to know. We should be aware of the pace of global warming. That's going to play a role in our lives and more so for our children's lives.
What does it mean when someone says the Earth is warming faster than previously thought? Not very much at all, I fear. Climate scientists are rupturing their lungs screaming warnings about the "climate emergency" unfolding in the Arctic when, in the 24-hour blackness of the Arctic winter, they're recording temperatures up to 30 degrees Celsius above normal but we're tuning out their frequency, surfing the dial for something a bit more enjoyable. Thelma & Louise.
Maybe, like the Arctic, we've entered a stage of 24-hour darkness about these rapidly looming threats. Out of sight/out of mind. Judging by the somnolence of our federal and provincial governments, it's easy to suspect that they've closed that book.
What if they have figured that it's too late, that climate change is now unstoppable no matter what they might do? Had they come to that conclusion, how might we expect them to behave? Probably pretty much just like they are acting today.
It would be great if they would even acknowledge what's underway and give us some assurances that they've got our backs, they have some plan, we'll be as okay as possible.
It's their silence that's driving me crazy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Of course they have a plan. It's called Mars and it's only 8 light minutes away.
I'm afraid that chris may be right.
.. I just about spewed my coffee the other morning.. reading that The Government will move to quash a citizen suit against Mount Polley and the BC Government ! Jessica Ernst just lost her Supreme Court bid to sue the Alberta Energy Regulator.. The list grows.. and grows. In the US of course, collusion at State levels prevents transparency on every matter regarding the energy and mining industries.
I can't speak to the rest of the world and how governments and industry collude.. yet I'm quite aware of some travesties. Stephen Harper encouraging Canada to become the Liberia of mining company registration. The stripping of the Amazon is another. Australia and it coal export. Who knows how much methane is pouring out of Russia! Or from the seabeds from abandoned wells.
We walk in snorkel in the Turks and Caicos. We return repeatedly to the same reefs every year and see the same wondrous crown coral, the same species again and again. Will this jewel eventually become a lovely island with no fishery? What of the locals.. the citizens? The complexity of global warming and its related effects should horrify people. But when you're a politician who's become corrupt in every sense of the word. Unprincipled, partisan, stagnant, evangelical etc etc you've actually become criminalized.
Wathing footage of mining company goons.. and worse, government soldiers.. in South America, simply bulldoze indigenous peoples oit of their communities.. crushing their culture.. and pointing at them to head down the road. Its shocking to realize these events are driven by internation conglomerates, corrupt governments and mining companies registered as Canadian so to remain impregnable from restraint or legal attack. Thank you Stephen Harper for your efforts to encourage global warming.. and anyone who assisted you or would follow in your toxic footprints. Now we get to see Justin Trudeau trying to do just that
We had such hopes, quickly extinguished. I was infuriated when Junior threw out his talking point that "You can't choose between the economy and the environment." Of course you can and he's done it repeatedly - bitumen extraction, pipelines, Site C, LNG. Every time he's come down on the side of expansion of fossil fuel extraction and export. He'll claim to have protected the enviro by halting Northern Gateway but that's a red herring. All they ever needed was one pipeline and they've got it.
We mock Trump as a liar but, so far, it's Trudeau who transforms his lies into policy.
Post a Comment