Devastated
The new UN Report is out on climate change. I am overcome.
I have just read the new UN Climate Report. It is available at npr.org. It is devastating. And as many of you know, some countries, as China & Saudi Arabia, insisted on watered-down language for the effects on poor regions of the world. As I write, I am listening to some of the further specifics that aren't in the report.
It has been inescapable to me, for some time, to see the relationship between population increase, energy use that relies on tolerating carbon emissions & resource extraction. 100's of millions or even billions of people may die as a consequence.
Beyond the direct effects and consequences, the interdependent effects that are so devastating to me from this report, are the combination of weather pattern changes that will reduce arable land & precipitation into watersheds, sea level rise due to loss of ice that will endanger coastal regions with high populations and the loss of species that will have secondary ecosystem effects. We will see all this unfold in our lifetimes. By 2030, 70% of the water from the Ganges will be reduced and far more polluted, affecting 100's of millions of people in that region alone.
The continued & cumulative effects will persist and "evolve" for centuries, even if we all immediately adopt the most draconian means of adaptation. This has been generally known for some time but the cumulative psychological effects of the details is what has devastated me.
Until now, I've been able to maintain a fairly positive attitude about the opportunities for our species to meet this challenge. But today I am less optimistic. It is less about my general grief for what we have engendered than the incessant images of wasting polar bear cubs, dying of starvation because their parents have drowned, swimming endless out into seas bereft of seals, that leave me feeling so devastated.
It is staggering to me, to accept all this and my part as a human being, in these circumstances.
I have just read the new UN Climate Report. It is available at npr.org. It is devastating. And as many of you know, some countries, as China & Saudi Arabia, insisted on watered-down language for the effects on poor regions of the world. As I write, I am listening to some of the further specifics that aren't in the report.
It has been inescapable to me, for some time, to see the relationship between population increase, energy use that relies on tolerating carbon emissions & resource extraction. 100's of millions or even billions of people may die as a consequence.
Beyond the direct effects and consequences, the interdependent effects that are so devastating to me from this report, are the combination of weather pattern changes that will reduce arable land & precipitation into watersheds, sea level rise due to loss of ice that will endanger coastal regions with high populations and the loss of species that will have secondary ecosystem effects. We will see all this unfold in our lifetimes. By 2030, 70% of the water from the Ganges will be reduced and far more polluted, affecting 100's of millions of people in that region alone.
The continued & cumulative effects will persist and "evolve" for centuries, even if we all immediately adopt the most draconian means of adaptation. This has been generally known for some time but the cumulative psychological effects of the details is what has devastated me.
Until now, I've been able to maintain a fairly positive attitude about the opportunities for our species to meet this challenge. But today I am less optimistic. It is less about my general grief for what we have engendered than the incessant images of wasting polar bear cubs, dying of starvation because their parents have drowned, swimming endless out into seas bereft of seals, that leave me feeling so devastated.
It is staggering to me, to accept all this and my part as a human being, in these circumstances.
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