MAY 25, 2021 – Displaced by news of human beings beating up on each other are the latest reports regarding “climate change.” Like 90% of an iceberg, this climate news is below the surface. Consider the following:
- The May 17 study, published by Nature Geoscience, concluding that global warming will expose more of the Antarctic land mass and cause a shift in wind patterns, producing rainfall, accelerating ice-melt, and adding to the rise of seawater—inundating densely populated coastal areas.
- Torrid, first-quarter residential real estate markets in Boise, Denver, and Minneapolis are fueled by buyers from the West Coast worried about water shortages and widespread fires.
- On the positive side, the May 18th report of the IEA (International Energy Agency) that says if we move now, we can still achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and limit global warming over the rest of the century to 1.5 degrees Celsius. An added bonus: increased global economic growth.
These reports ought to overwhelm noise associated with political news. Unfortunately, too many people are tuning out nature’s inexorable drumbeat, its destructive pulse rising with sea levels.
The world-wide pandemic was—and in many quarters, remains—more than a global crisis. It became a supreme test of humanity’s ability to understand science and respond cogently to a common threat. If ever there’d been a time to cooperate and coordinate, this would’ve been that time. Never before have so many people walked the planet and mingled so fast and frequently among themselves. Yet, too many of our species denied science, defied the rules, and did as they wished—endangering all.
Nearly 600,000 Americans died of the disease, and over 33 million—one in 10 of us—contracted it. Preliminary studies suggest that 10% to 30% of the 33 million will be “long-haulers,” suffering significant long-term problems. Extrapolate across a world of 7.8 billion people, and you’ve got yourself a zinger in deaths and disabilities.
Yet potentially, the pandemic is only a “warm-up” for what lies ahead. In the biggest group effort of all time, we must slam the brakes on global warming and plan for the disruptions that will flow from cascading climate change already in the works—irrespective of causation.
“Climate change,” it seems, is too mild a phrase to overcome the loudspeakers of political nonsense. We need something like, “Hostile Aliens Landing!” to sharpen our focus and motivate us to work together—around the globe—to save ourselves. Our instruction manual should be the IEA report mentioned above. Its central features—(a) it’s not too late; (b) our common purpose; and (c) the economic benefits of getting to net-zero emissions by 2050—need to be highlighted with such intensity and constancy that even the dinosaurs among us dash to jump aboard. Before millions of climate refugees take flight, all of us must . . . move.
If we hesitate in the face of the climate crisis, nature’s fury—let alone, hostile aliens—won’t hesitate to overwhelm us.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
