Understanding climate change, & the future is in our power
- When we dig up and burn fossil fuels, we are wrapping a blanket of carbon pollution around the earth. This pollution blanket is trapping heat in our atmosphere that would otherwise escape back out to space.
- That trapped heat causes more damaging downpours and droughts that wipe out farmers’ crops. It powers stronger hurricanes and storms that devastate our coasts. It means hotter temperatures that fuel wildfires and cause crippling heat waves. It causes sea level to rise, which will flood millions of homes.
- As for the science, 99 percent of climate scientists agree: it’s real, it’s human-caused, it’s serious, and there are solutions that will benefit us all. The faster we cut our carbon pollution, the better off we’ll all be.
- The climate has changed in the past but what’s different is that the rate of change now, over a few decades, is unprecedented and too fast for most of life on earth to adapt.
The good news is that as the climate crisis is man-made so each of us has the power to address it.
What a lot of people still don’t understand – and need to, as soon as possible – is that we humans are the biggest source of uncertainty in determining how serious climate change becomes. Collapse is not a foregone conclusion. We are the problem. That means we can be the solution. What happens is down to each and every one of us. The International Panel on Climate Change didn’t say we had 12 years, 11 years, 9 years to act – it said “every action matters; every choice matters”.
So, yes, there’s lot to do but it can be done. Some recent good climate news:
- US to develop 30GW offshore wind by 2030
- Biden to commit $85b to public transit, $80b for rail, $174b to EVs
- China to make world’s no.1 steel industry green
- Japan to end support of coal power exports
- South Africa ups 2030 emissions target 28%
- Greece shuts down 1.2GW coal plants
- US to align tax policy with climate goals
- Sweden’s Polestar to build world’s 1st carbon-neutral car
- US considers 50% emissions cut by 2030, Japan 40%
During WWII, we acted collectively for the common good. People gave up years of their lives or lost their lives to fight for the future, food was rationed, everyone contributed. The challenge now is far greater but involves far less. In fact, the necessary changes will lead to a fairer, cleaner, greener, healthier world with nature restored.
We’re becoming part of the solution by cutting our greenhouse gas emissions: eating far less meat and dairy, flying and driving far less or not at all, buying fewer things: reduce, reuse, repair, recycle. Whatever you can afford to do, we hope you’ll join us in doing it. Insulating your house, installing a heat pump or swapping to an electric car too expensive? Then lobby our PM and our MP too to play their large part by stopping pouring money into a fossil-fueled world and to do far more to support clean, green power instead.
We are each responsible for the future. What will we say to our children?
We will be starting our hedge survey in June. Do get in touch if you’d like to help.
It’s been a really tough spring for wildlife. Please help all you can and leave wild plants to flower and set seed until July if you can – to provide food for butterflies, bees, birds, hedgehogs, bats. Will there be blackberries and sloes this autumn for us?
Please also be aware that children enjoy nature and many adults take great solace from it and are upset, for example, by seeing needless verge cutting with all the resulting loss of wildlife. Please also avoid using pesticides and watch out when using machinery for nesting mammals, especially hedgehogs which don’t flee from danger. Thank you.
milborneportclimateaction@gmail.com https://network23.org/milbornecan/
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