Climate Change Primer
What we can do:
Educate yourself, help spread the climate change facts and science.
at the individual level: recycle, plant a tree, buy local, downsize, reduce your energy consumption (less air conditioning in summer;it does not have to be frigid cold and less heating in winter ; put on a sweater ) use public transportation when possible, less consumerism, be aware of your own carbon footprint and make changes in your lifestyle to minimize your carbon footprint, explore and implement green energy such as solar panels.
at the community level: Work towards change in community values to reflect and to address climate change challenges (educate, set example, participate in green energy projects, support less consumerism, support environment conservation).
at government level: Politicize climate change, demand from politicians to act, to invest in green energy, to invest in research of CCT and planetary cooling, to build green energy infrastructure such as wind turbine farms, solar farms, electricity charging station network to support electric cars usage, impose strict limit on CO2 emissions.
See list of initiatives that will curb CO2 emissions at https://www.drawdown.org/. briefly: the top CO2 global reduction measures could reduce the current annual CO2 emissions by almost 50%. These measures include some less talked about initiatives such as: Refrigerant management, offshore wind turbines, reduced food waste, plant rich diet, tropical forests, educating girls, family planning. (50% reduction in CO2 emissions may keep the temperature rise below +2C by the end of this century, buy more time to adapt, limit the severity of climate change calamities such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, spread of tropical diseases slow down ocean rising and flooding coastal mega-cities and many others)
Carbon dioxide emission rate: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/
Global temperature and CO2 levels: https://www.globalchange.gov/browse/multimedia/global-temperature-and-carbon-dioxide
Here is a letter to Canadian political leadership, prepared by Suzuki foundation:
https://davidsuzuki.org/action/power-canada-renewable-energy/
Full implementation of the Pan-Canadian Framework will create new, long-term jobs, enable local energy and economic diversification, improve air quality and human health, reduce dependence on higher-polluting external energy resources, increase savings on energy bills, and widen the distribution of these benefits to communities throughout our country.
There is no time to lose in advancing renewable energy and shifting away from highly carbon-polluting fossil fuels.
• Eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuel industry by 2020;
• increase investments in renewables and grid and infrastructure upgrades that will enable more low-impact distributed renewable energy to be brought online;
• Continue to move forward to provide a federal carbon pricing back-stop to send a clear market signal that polluters must pay;
• Enact robust clean power legislation that mandates low-impact renewable energy and ends our dependency on high-carbon power sources;
• Support the transition from coal-fired electricity to renewables rather than natural gas;
• invest in training programs that help workers in the fossil fuel industry seize new opportunities in the growing renewable economy;
• Ensure that Canada meets the commitment that by 2030, 30 per cent of new vehicles sold will be electric vehicles.
Some notes based on 'The uninhabitable Earth', a book by David Wallace-Wells:
This is a book about what it means to live under increasingly warmer climate politically, socially and culturally. it raises the question how we, Homo Sapience, will live on this planet that no longer is conducive to life evolution.
David Wallace-Wells (DWW) advocates:
1. Eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2040
2. Eliminate energy inefficiencies, food waste, clothing,
3. Life style changes: Reduce consumerism, reduce individual carbon footprint , adapt new social and cultural values to preserve ecosystems
4. Politicize climate change
DWW writes that our life, our civilization will change profoundly. There will be global social and economic upheavals , climate refugees migrations (causing social and cultural stresses), droughts, political and social changes, spread of tropical deceases. Spread of uninhabitable regions of the planet. The civilization of Homo Sapience is about to change dramatically and the first tremors are already felt.
We can all , at an individual level, reduce our carbon footprint: recycle, reduce waste, downsize, reduce consumerism, plant a tree, install solar panels, reduce energy consumption.
We also should become climate change activists, to prod our governments to steer our societies towards green economy, invest in research of carbon capture and planetary cooling. Governments should prepare our societies for the climate warming induced changes , social, cultural and economic. Political platforms should include educating citizens about climate changes impact, provide guidelines what individual and society can do, subsidize public transportation, educate to reduce consumerism, subsidize and encourage using green energy, reforest , reduce pollution, guard clean water.
Western world view of good life (the american dream?), the consumerism , is depleting our planet resources, making parts of it inhabitable, destroying ours and other species habitat. We can not ignore the signs of climate change and continue as if nothing is happening. We, Homo Sapience are resilient species, we can prepare ourselves, come together as global society, make it our global priority to look after our planet, our environment and the life that has evolved in our corner of the universe.
