We're writing the future now for generations of Canadians to come and it's indelible.
A new study concludes that every five years we delay strong action on climate change will add an extra 8 inches of sea level rise by this century's end.
“One important point was to reveal that sea level [rise] is not in the far future, it’s now, and because the system is so slow, we just can’t see it at the moment,” said Matthias Mengel of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the lead author of the study, which was published in Nature Communications. “But we cause it now.”
...
The goal is to limit warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), which requires that the world essentially cease adding any more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2050 or so.
This, in turn, means that global greenhouse gas emissions must reach a peak by either 2020, 2025 or 2030 (or possibly 2035) and then begin to decline rapidly. The longer the wait, the faster the necessary decline after the peak. If we delay longer still, it simply becomes too difficult to bring emissions down fast enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming.
...
“The more cumulative emissions, the more warming, the more sea level,” Mengel explained.
And that’s just the central estimate in the study. At the extreme end of what’s relatively unlikely but still certainly possible, the research found that each five-year delay could mean as much as an additional meter, or over three feet, of sea level rise. That is because of the ever-growing chance of major destabilization of the Antarctic ice sheet. In some small number of scenarios, even with the sharp emissions reductions contemplated by the Paris agreement, the Antarctic ice sheet still gives up meters worth of sea level rise.
It's becoming inarguable that Justin Trudeau isn't taking this seriously. Instead he's gambling with the future, our grandkids' future. Even Liberals should find that reprehensible.
4 comments:
I fear Liberals will take heart in this sentence: "global greenhouse gas emissions must reach a peak by either 2020, 2025 or 2030 (or possibly 2035)." They'll conclude that they can safely put off taking action until after the next election (or two).
Cap
Yes, in keeping with past administrations, Conservative and Liberal, that's exactly what they'll do, Cap. They'll bequeath massive consequences to future generations for the sake of illusory benefit today.
.. I posted a comment to Owen today.. and yes absorbed your wicked ass comment. I will as usual return & peruse again.. even 3 times.. I do admire baseball and getting three things.. swings at stuff that is curvy n wicked ass.
My point (If I accomplished one) to Owen.. was that even to peeps who like n trust me, the concepts of tar sands, Energy Security For Canadians, fracking, National Interest.. are uh, well.. eye glazing curveballs.
The concept of glaciers melting or whatever th hell permafrost is or was.. equally so. Hell, Mound .. some of these peeps go to church & sit in pews.. go up down, kneel, standup, sit down, kneel.. and I speak with extreme sarcasm having been an all star altar boy who lived 60 secs from the church.. I kid you not.. I could hit the church with a well packed snow ball.. lefty of course but I could hit it righty as well
We need new tools, new ways to communicate the oncoming freight train reality.. we are building on the railway tracks.. we are in the gunsights of political animals.. we need to get guerrilla.. drift and encamp into the underbrush.. be nasty, be hard on the bad poli boyz n girlz who lie their asses off.. No time for Queensbury Rules. Few have seen my dark Black Irish side.. same few will not likely forget it. I keep that beastie carefully in the way back.. the way far far back.. it knows no leash, its a sudden thang
I'me getting old Mound, seeing Canada as I experienced her.. trashed.. just aint acceptable. while friends explored exotic locations, I dug deeper into Canada eh.. Again n again I rode thumb, train, plane and car west to east.. lost count in fact.. while they were in Morocco.. I was clearing Sentinel Pass or freezing me arse on Long Beach and using the Laundromat in Tofino to Hull to dry our stuff.. I landscaped north o Edmonton pre tar sands.. only because the combines were done, th grain in th barn in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.. I take shite from nobody on certain matters.. as I have a certain farm boy stance.. you, Lorne & Owen have a well earned exemption.. and there are others getting to the getting place..
I'm getting old too, Sal. I'm sufficiently weather-beaten not to imagine we'll actually win this one. That's probably not in the cards. I can ignore that, however, because I have a powerful fallback position. Whether we lose these fights doesn't make them unnecessary. We may not be able to spare future generations from very hard times we have created but that doesn't mean we should give up because, in capitulating, we guarantee that their future will be far more dangerous and miserable than it need be. What we've already done is bad enough without making it worse. Not making their predicament worse than need be - that's always worth fighting for.
Post a Comment