THE ESSENCE: WE NEED TO TRANSFORM OUR CIVILIZATION ANYWAY
There is a simple common-sense approach to climate change:
These are changes we need to transform our civilization no matter what. Human-created climate change or not, we need to shift our civilization into being ecologically sustainable. We need to take ecological realities into account in every aspect of how we collectively live.
We use nearly two Earths’ worth of resources at any moment, which means all of the resources will eventually be depleted unless we make drastic changes. We use more resources than Earth has the capacity to regenerate, and we depend on those resources for our life and survival.
AND SOME ADDITIONAL POINTS
The discussion about whether climate change is happening (it is) and whether it’s created by humans (it is) has little to no practical relevance in this context. It’s a distraction and a side track.
That said, I will pretend it does mean something in the following points:
It makes sense to follow the precautionary principle. If something has potentially serious consequences, we need to take it seriously. We need to prepare for it. We need to act as if it’s going to happen. That’s what we do in other areas of life, so why not with something as potentially disastrous as climate change?
Experts in the field all agree: (i) We are in the middle of climate change. (ii) It’s created by human activities. And (iii) it likely has severe consequences for our civilization. In other areas of life, we listen to and generally trust experts, especially when they all say the same. So why not also here?
The ones disagreeing are typically not experts in the field, they are amateurs. Many are on the payroll of the oil companies. And we know that the oil companies have had an intentional disinformation campaign going for decades. So why trust what they say?
The changes in climate we currently see closely fit predictions from the early climate change models from the 1970s. They fit what we expect to see if (i) there is climate change, (ii) it’s human-created, and (iii) we don’t do much to change it. It does not fit natural cycles explained by solar activity etc. It does not fit what we would expect if it was natural and not created by civilization.
Although the climate is immensely complex, the basic principles of climate change are simple. Even a child can understand and observe it, and people predicted it more than a hundred years ago. In a greenhouse, short waves (light) enter through the glass, hit a surface and become longer waves (heat), and that heat is partially trapped by the glass. There is a net gain of heat. And greenhouse gasses do the same. Short waves (sunlight) pass through our atmosphere, hit a surface and become heat, and the greenhouse gasses trap the heat. Just like a greenhouse heats up because of the glass, the atmosphere and planet heats up because of greenhouse gasses. Our civilization produces a lot of greenhouse gasses and changes the composition of the atmosphere. What we are seeing is exactly what we would expect to see.
NOTHING NEW
This is not a new or uncommon way to look at it.
To me, it’s just common sense, and I have seen it this way since my teens in the ’80s. I remember a conversation with a teacher about this in my high school where I pointed out that climate change is irrelevant since we need to make the same changes anyway. (He disagreed and I probably remember it since it seemed odd to me.)
CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL TAKES DIFFERENT FORMS
For whatever reason, there is still a lot of denial around this.
In the past, some denied climate change is happening but that’s not possible anymore. (Unless you want to deny the climate data and what you can see around you with your own eyes.)
These days, some like to deny it’s related to human activity.
Why do some deny that it’s human-created? Because it’s too scary? Or require a deep transformation of our worldview and our civilization? Or because it’s a threat to your identity to admit that scientists and progressives were right? None of those seem a good reason to me.
WHY THE SLOW CHANGE?
Even if most of us agree it’s happening and it’s serious, we collectively don’t do much to change it. We deny its seriousness and that we need a profound transformation in our collective and individual lives.
Why don’t we collectively do enough to change it?
There are many reasons for this.
Systems inherently try to keep stable. Systems stay dynamically stable until they reach a tipping point, and denial is an expression of the system trying to maintain its current (outdated) state. The denial and complacency are expressions of this dynamic inherent in all systems.
Election cycles are typically between two and six years, and addressing climate change requires planning on a much longer timespan – decades and centuries. If politicians do something now, we won’t see the effects until decades later so even if they personally would like to work on it, they don’t have systemic incentives to do so.
We think someone else will take care of it, either other people alive today or future generations.
We think the crisis will happen in the future, so we push the problem onto future generations. (Even if we are right in the middle of it already.)
Many are voiceless in our system. Non-human beings and future generations don’t have an effective voice in our society, in our politics, and in business decisions. The ones who have the strongest reasons to want a change have no voice. (We can give them a voice by appointing advocates for them who have a real say in politics and business decisions.)
We think someone will come up with a simple technological solution, so we don’t need any fundamental changes in our worldview and how we collectively organize ourselves. (We may find technological solutions, but they will never be enough on their own.)
Collectively and individually, we are busy dealing with our day-to-day life and challenges We may end up using most of our resources to deal with immediate climate crisis challenges, and find it difficult to make the real and systemic changes required.
INITIAL DRAFT
There is a very simple common-sense approach to climate change:
(a) These are changes we need to make no matter what. Human-created climate change or not, we need to shift our civilization into being ecologically sustainable. We need to take ecological realities into account in every aspect of how we collectively live.
We use nearly two Earths’ worth of resources at any moment, which means all of the resources will eventually be depleted unless we make drastic changes. We use more resources than Earth has the capacity to regenerate, and we depend on those resources for our life and survival.
The discussion about climate change has little to no practical relevance in this context. It’s a distraction and a side track. Although I will pretend it does mean something in the following points.
(b) We need to follow the precautionary principle. If something has potentially serious consequences, we need to take it seriously. We need to prepare for it. We need to act as if it’s going to happen. That’s what we do in other areas of life, so why not with something as potentially disastrous as climate change?
(c) Experts in the field all agree: (i) We are in the middle of climate change. (ii) It’s created by human activities. And (iii) it likely has severe consequences for our civilization. In other areas of life, we listen to and generally trust experts, especially when they all say the same. So why not also here?
(d) The ones disagreeing are typically not experts in the field, they are amateurs. Many are on the payroll of the oil companies. And we know that the oil companies have had an intentional disinformation campaign going for decades. So why trust what they say?
(e) The changes in climate we currently see fits closely the predictions from climate change models from the ’70s. They fit what we expect to see if (i) there is climate change, (ii) it’s human-created, and (iii) we don’t do much to change it. It does not fit natural cycles explained by solar activity etc.
(f) Although the climate is immensely complex, the basic principles of climate change are simple. Even a child can understand and observe it. Just like glass traps heat, gasses do the same. Sunlight is converted to heat, and short waves (light) become longer waves (heat). And just like a greenhouse heats up because of the glass, our atmosphere heats up because of greenhouse gasses.
This is not a new or uncommon way to look at it. I have seen it that way since my teens in the ’80s.
At the same time, there is a lot of denial around this. In the past, some denied it was happening but that’s not possible anymore. These days, some like to deny it’s related to human activity. And even if most of us agree it’s happening and it’s serious, we collectively don’t do much to change it. We deny its seriousness and that we need a profound transformation in our collective and individual lives.
Why do some deny that it’s human-created? I suspect it has partly to do with identity. Climate change has, for whatever reason, become the cause of liberals and progressives, and some don’t want to be associated with that. They may also not want the change that comes with taking it seriously and acting on it, so it’s more comfortable – in the short run – to pretend it’s not happening.
Why don’t we collectively do enough to change it? There are many reasons for this. (i) Systems inherently try to maintain themselves. Systems are slow in changing until they reach a tipping point, and denial is an expression of the system trying to maintain its current (outdated) state. (ii) The political cycles are typically four years, and this requires planning over decades and centuries. If politicians do something now, we won’t see the effects until decades later, and the effects are that things get a little less worse. (iii) We think someone else will take care of it. (iv) We think the crisis will happen in the future, so we push the problem onto future generations. (Even if we are right in the middle of it already.) (v) We have enough with our own day-to-day life and challenges, collectively and individually. We may end up using most of our resources to deal with our immediate climate crisis situations, and find it difficult to make the real and deep changes required.