Let’s use our voice to slow climate change

IN THE late 1980s, after almost a decade of debate on climate change, there was an opportunity for global leaders to freeze carbon emissions with a target to reduce emissions by 20% by 2005. If this was achieved, global warming could have been kept to less than 1.5ºC.

James Hansen, the world’s leading scientist on climate change, had predicted in 1979 that the climate would warm by one degree before 2020 if no significant action was taken to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

The US was a global leader in fossil fuel emissions, responsible for more than 30%, and needed to be a leader in reducing them.

Ronald Reagan took no action. The planet has warmed by the predicted 1ºC. Donald Trump is mirroring his predecessor’s inactivity. The two most powerful men on the planet were, and are, impotent in the face of the future, which is human civilisation’s demise because of very short-term political interests or cowardice.

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, in contrast, is doing everything she can to incentivise action from the world’s political elite. In the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, her actions reflect who is going to feel the pain in the future. She knows that her young generation will have to pay for the current elders’ emissions. Socio-economically, the poor will suffer what the rich deserve.

We only have one planet. There is nowhere else to go. We have a moral responsibility to act on behalf of our children and their children. It’s not all about political, economic and legal considerations, which we may see as beyond our capacity. Let’s use our voice today for the sake of our children tomorrow.