A Manhattan Project (Industry, Academia, Government) can save us…and even some of the private-sector vultures have their uses here.
But we are running out of minutes.
I love that sign I want you to panic.
In another month or two, the press will start their new season of “American Election Coverage.” And just like they did in 2014, story number one will be…
Nothing can get done on climate policy until the election is over.
Five years and nothing done. We don’t have time to waste. Panic!!!
I think the problem is that those who know are not communicating the right way.
I have always thought that the way to go was using this kind of logic
“We have a very serious problem with climate change. We must all work together…and we HAVE…[we mention many of the things we have done] and had we not done these things we would be in much MUCH worse shape and we must BUILD on that. So let’s get moving!!!”
Too many of those who talk about climate change use the doomsday approach. And we may very WELL BE IN A DOOMSDAY POSITION…but people respond more to hope than to handwringing. And, as an educator, I have seen that they respond well when they are reminded for the things which have BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
They are right to riot. This is the kind of crisis that doesn’t exist in the historical record – the Black Death and the greatest wars in history don’t hold a candle to it – and the young are figuring out that, if they want to live, not only must policy and ameliorative programs be radically accelerated and massive in scope but the current sociopolitical order is not up to the task and will have to go.
Nearly a billion people rely for food upon the five great river systems of Asia and nearly that number again rely upon subsistence farming w/ seasonal rains. When those patterns change – and changing they already are – agricultural failures will accelerate, in many cases toward drought, in others toward floods that current infrastructures cannot handle: ditches, dikes, dams, bridge heights, storm sewers, and catchment basins will be the wrong size everywhere.
As facts like these fully enter the public consciousness there will be change and it will be big and fast. It may not be in time to save the corals and many other species but it may save us (as a species at least).
NB: The possibility of human-forced climate change via carbon burning (coal, etc) was recognized more than a century ago but that was just basic science so of course few treated it as significant. That too will change.
I love that cold rain headline.
Ultimately the farmers should be screaming the loudest. They are attuned to the climate out of necessity unlike most of us. If the average Joe can see that something is amiss, they have to be on the cutting edge. Yet too many of them support the fools in the denier class. Makes no sense. Suspect this has something to do with the corporate umbrella that so much of the agricultural community works within. Short term profits, long term neglect.
Blessings on them. Blessings on them all. This is the fight that actually matters most.