We've known about the effects of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere for decades, at least 4 decades, yet here we are. The new report by the IPCC (United Nations) is 4,000 pages of doom and gloom. Well, not really. Maybe just 3,000 pages are doom and gloom. The rest offers some optimism, if we change our ways.
One quote from the report says, "It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. The last decade was more liely than not warmer than any multi-centennial period after the Last Interglacial, rougly 125,000 years ago."
According to the hundreds of scientists that contributed to the report from around the world, we have to totally change the way energy is produced. There doesn't seem to be the political will to do that right now, at least in this country. Changes will likely come regionally. Asking people to make changes for something that will benefit mankind in the future, is hard. People don't want to invest in these changes unless they are personally going to benefit. And they aren't.. The reality is that unless we keep our emissions low for the next 30 years, we cannot be at Net 0 by 2050.
If we continue doing what we're doing the earth will at some point become uninhabitable. Fossil fuels have got to go. I know, lots of people make their living taking energy out of the rocks and ground, but if we don't find another way, we will all lose.
If you're a podcast listener, I can recommend the August 13 episode of The Daily, called Code Red for Humanity. It will wake you up.
No comments:
Post a Comment