For a feverish planet
quickly into other communities, eventually to become a global movement.
I like to think I’m a glasshalf-full person, but certainly not compared to Hawken and Gameau.
They are surely right to celebrate human ingenuity and drive and never to give up on those endless possibilities. Who can say what good might come of them?
But scale is against them. Human activities are now adding carbon to the atmosphere at a rate and volume that’s unprecedented, not just in human history but throughout our planet’s entire existence.
Turning that around demands action at a level far beyond what any individual, community, corporation or nation can achieve,
Turning that around demands action at a level far beyond what any individual, community, corporation or nation can achieve, but the global unity of purpose we will need is nowhere to be seen in today’s fractured political landscape. If saying that makes me a pessimist, so be it.
All of us hope for the best while fortifying ourselves against the worst. The truth will surely lie in between. While many species will become extinct this century, humans will not be among them, and we will curtail carbon emissions — but too late to prevent some nasty climate impacts.
We are only playing catchup with land carbon efforts like planting trees and eating less meat if we don’t also stop the activity that created this mess and continues to thwart abatement efforts: digging up fossil carbon and burning it. That’s the real deal, the bottom-line solution.
Having heard a growing public disquiet, some governments are responding. This month two close allies, the UK and New Zealand, have declared new, ambitious emissions goals with targeted support for communities and corporations to abandon fossil fuels.
Australia’s 2019 summer of extremes influenced the UK decision, yet here we don’t talk about such things. While representing ambitious targets and coal sanctions as economic folly, the Morrison Government continues to ignores climate danger signs. If that doesn’t change, something will snap. Peter Boyer, who began his journalism career at the
specialises in the science and politics of climate change.