Ok, so are we exaggerating global warming?
No one would have followed Martin Luther King if he had said “I have a nightmare”, as mentioned by energy secretary Ed Miliband.
We have to be careful that we don’t scare off would be joiners with too much hyperbole. Admittedly, I am an extreme advocate of climate change. We need to unite in being good to this earth. It has been so good to all of us. I am hopeful that the decision makers representing the world in Copenhagen are uniting in the dream — and not denying the nightmare.
Side note and a bit of irony –> more than 1200 limos are being called in from all over Europe to meet the delegates, officials and presidential demands of the Copenhagen climate summit. Too cold to ride bikes I guess. The “economic growth” advocates ie: Republicans for continued pollution, will be represented by US Senator, Jim Inhofe
We all know the nightmare –> So many pictures of people riding bikes in China through polluted air with face masks. Stories of asthmatic children in the Bronx breathing diesel fumes. Photos of decapitated mountains in West Virginia and the subsequent coal muck escaping in to small towns. Growth was so big and so fast that sewage spilled in to drinking water in Florida. Many fists pound many tables when you suggest that things need to change.
Polluters love muddling the facts, and making fun of the nightmarish scenarios. Some scientists actually feed the machine that is profiting currently. The collaborative machine of industry, shipping, air flights, hospitals, manufacturers, and on and on are horrified by the idea of changing energy production and usage. We have evolved to need stuff, rather than just water, food, shelter and coffee.
Many of them don’t think of themselves as polluters but as providers of jobs. Many of them simply don’t care as long as stock holder profits are improving. No such thing as a sustainable status quo in the stock market. We just need to make change less horrifying and point out the advantages to health and stocks.
So lets describe the dream… Andrew Gilligan wrote an article for the telegraph.co.uk…” Copenhagen is a city filled entirely with bicycles, stuffed with retrofitted, energy-efficient old buildings, and seems to embody the civilized pleasures of low-carbon living without any of the puritanism”.
Costa Rica produces 99% of its energy from renewable sources, reversed deforestation and is aiming to become a carbon-neutral country by 2021 by combining its ministries of energy and environment, and abolishing its army. Ok abolishing armies will probably never happen world wide, there will always be bad guys to fight. We can dream though. Other small island nations such as the Dominican Republic and Jamaica are also fairing well in levels of health and a very low footprint.
I agree with Mr Miliband that we need to stop delivering “the sky is falling” message. Stop being so full of ourselves because we are hanging our clothes on the line and carrying our water in a glass jar. We need to help young smart people get in to colleges that promote environmental engineering and require environmental awareness in their curriculum. Industry and manufacturing can make products sustainably. It can be done and is being done. Lets study how they’re doing it. Lets study the countries that are successfully achieving sustainability.
I think there is a little island country — the maldives? They are trying to figure out how to keep their sea turtles and their tourists happy.
There are many nightmares to learn from. Bhopal is a nightmare to remember. Do you remember? A cloud of poison gas leaked from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in the middle of the night and drifted over the Bhopal slums killing thousands.
The coal industry is doing the same thing Union Carbide did when they convinced India that the big new plant they were going to build in Bhopal was going to make their lives better and they’d be happier. I’m not saying we should forget the nightmares, lest they happen again. Just, maybe, focus more on the dream, lest we lose our focus.
