First of all, thanks to anyone who has been reading this blog site and put up with my ranting and raving about climate change! Second, my apologies for what appears to be such a negative outlook, but sometimes reality sucks and I just want people to spend a bit more time thinking about what is truly coming towards us.
2020 certainly has been challenging in many ways but I think we need to look at it and see what we can learn. First of all, shit happens. The pandemic is one of those ‘not if, but when‘ things, which we are increasingly confronted with as more of us populate and stress the planet’s resources. If indeed the virus made the jump from some exotic animal wet market species, then we better be more diligent in monitoring those exposures since we have certainly been taught how quickly they can be spread. The pandemic has also shown us how the human psychology can deny, ignore or hopefully accept challenges that require personal sacrifice for the greater good. On the positive side, it has shown us how, once accepting and motivated, we can find answers, such as vaccines. In 2021, we will be challenged to stay the course, remain diligent in doing the basic things such as wearing masks, avoiding dangerous social contact and managing high levels of hygiene until the vaccine(s) can be fully distributed and herd immunity achieved.
In regards to Climate Change, 2020 shows us just how hard it is going to be stop greenhouse gas increases because everyone is going to have to contribute to solving/slowing the problem. If you read all my posts so far, you will note that there are a lot of areas of vulnerability and new ones appear almost every day. I just put a link on the resources page – Microscopic life is melting Greenland’s ice sheet – that scientists didn’t see coming. Turns out that as the climate has warmed, a threshold was crossed and algae now grows on the ice in Greenland that is dark and because it is dark, absorbs more sunlight causing faster melting(!) – who knew!! Anyway, even though the light is at the end of the tunnel for Covid-19 and hopefully things can get back to ‘normal’ by the end of 2021, we can’t forget that the challenges coming towards us from Climate Change are not slowing down. Quite the opposite, they are accelerating.
So to everyone, here’s wishing you a Happy Holidays with those loved ones close to you and for those not close by, there is Zoom. Take a bit of time to reflect and make a New Year’s resolution to do a few things to reduce your carbon footprint and prepare for the challenges ahead.