Solutions to the Climate Crisis
The Paris Climate Change summit has come and gone. The results? Kind of like what Naomi Klein, author and activist, says: Your doctor tells you that you have dangerously high levels of cholesterol and are at acute risk of a fatal heart attack. You are told to stop eating meat and radically reduce your intake of alcohol. So what do you do? Instead of eating 5 hamburgers a day you eat 4. Instead of ten drinks a day you have eight. The world leaders who gathered in Paris were falling over themselves congratulating one another on what they saw as an historic achievement. But what was agreed upon was the equivalent of applying band aids where surgery is required. The future of the planet is at stake. We need solutions not placebos.
Speaker
Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery of Australia is a major voice in chronicling the effects of climate change and proposing solutions. He has taught at the University of Adelaide and Harvard and was Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum. He is a Professional Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Crisis
Dirk Faegre –
Any media attention to the issue of Climate Change that urges new thinking and embraces the idea that we are in trouble, big trouble, is welcome and appreciated. However, for one, I don’t believe Flannery is taking it seriously enough! When we say existential crisis we mean the very continuation of our species hangs in the balance. As many say: the earth will be just fine — it doesn’t care as it hurtles thru space. But we humans bring on our own demise. We seem to have this propensity for ignoring trouble until it bites us.
Paul Ehrlich’s book The Population Bomb made it clear to me when he mathematically figured out that, at then-current growth patterns, the combined mass (weight) of all the people on the earth was headed to exceed the mass of our planet. “Now, that’s not going to work”, I said to myself. But here we are adding all sorts of new disasters to the many reasons we cannot continue on our current trajectory including acidification of the oceans, creating trash (much of it to come back and haunt us in the worst possible ways), using water to the point we’re on a crash with our future, etc. No, we clearly haven’t been bitten hard enough by reality yet. I, for one, think we passed the point of no return back in the 1960’s or 70’s and now just continue to fool ourselves into believing “it can wait, I’m too busy with more important stuff in my life right now”.
It’s hard to face reality at times — but face it we will, like it or not. [edited for brevity]
Jack onan –
Practice up to the level you preach. How do you travel to your next gig– Bicycle, walk, swim, sailboat, rowboat, on the wings of a dove?
Source of energy for heat, hot water, electric?
Bryony Schwan –
Found Tim Flannery’s lecture very interesting and especially appreciated his reference to the biomimetic solutions (although he didn’t call them that) like carbon negative concrete and plastics from CO2. Wished he had talked a bit more about the agricultural solutions too climate change like alternative grazing systems and regenerative agriculture. Another point where I wished he’d gone further was when he was asked about human population growth. Tim correctly observed that when women in developing countries are given access to medical care, birth control and economic opportunities, birth rates go down. However, he did not mention the incredibly important fact that even though birth rates are lower in more industrialized countries, the climate impacts from consumption of people in industrialized countries far out weigh those in developing countries sometimes to the tune of ten to hundreds of times. So its really important that we not just pin population growth on developing countries. They are, after all, trying to emulate our over consumptive lifestyles. I look forward to reading and hearing more from Tim Flannery. Thanks!
Patty Denison –
While living in northern Canada 70s through 90s we were well aware of global warming way back when. The glaciers were melting as was the year round snow pack on many of the mountains. There was a circum-polar inference in the late 70s where they determined that global warming was in fact, happening.
Having closely followed any coverage of the recent COP21 that I could find, I was left with a sense of urgency that would follow, either in my town, county or state. Or the university here. Nothing. Life is going on. Not a mention of it at all.
So, when I heard your piece today on our volunteer radio station WFHB, I am at least left with a sense that there are more options than I was aware of. People are working on this and it briefly gave me a moment of hope, a future that I would like to be part of, and participate in. I think others who hear what you have to say will feel the same.
In the mean time, we will install solar, minimalize our footprint and do what we can at home to do our minuscule part.
Thank you for a glimmer of light.
PD