For those of you who have read my blog, you know that I have been speaking out about things like tipping points (climate change drivers that once started, continue to feed the warming cycle regardless of human contribution or efforts to reduce) such as permafrost melting, the albedo effect, forest fires, AMOC circulation stopping, etc…. If you get a chance, watch a film released late last year; Earth Emergency, that spells out in pretty clear terms how all this works.
Of course, although in geologic time cycles, the Earth heats and cools, humans are the current driver of this cycle in what could be called ‘a blink of an eye’. And much like a swarm of locust, we will burn out our environment and the swarm will die off to a more sustainable level, with the land/environment damaged for many years before the next dominant player comes into being and history repeats itself. This could be a series of volcanic events, an asteroid or another species; even our own species several hundreds or thousands of years down the road. Frankly, the Earth could care less.
The tragedy of it all is that we could avoid the worst of what is yet to come but given our focus on the short term, probably won’t. While we are currently focused on Russia/Ukraine and maybe one crazy guy’s obsession, the UN and IPCC have just issued yet another report, this one more dire than the last. We have just about run out of time, and being perhaps a bit more pessimist than most, I would say we are out of time. A new report says we must invest 7 trillion dollars a year starting now if we hope to meet 1.5 deg C rise in avg global temp. Personally, I think the right number with that amount of focus is more like 2.5 deg C and believe me, at that point, we are just along for the ride.
So what to do? Well, individually, we have to come to grips with the need to change just about everything we do and accept the pain that will bring. We have to do this for the sake of our children and future generations. For those with the means, perhaps, as I am doing, build out a refuge that might provide some chance of adaptation and the ability to weather the risk of societal upheaval. No guarantee but a chance.
Along the way, perhaps a ‘farm to table’ business model so that a sustainable effort can also self fund and contribute to a more balanced harmonious approach. For those with the means, you don’t personally have to become a farmer but could have a small team who run the farm (lots of young people graduating with sustainability degrees who need jobs) and maybe you just spend a few weeks there a year but it is ready and waiting if you need it. Anyway, lots of options but they do take time to put in place.
Humanity is not going to disappear, but there is a rough road ahead and an ounce of prevention may make the difference.
Best – SZ, future farmer