We move into an uncertain future as we peel away another decade from the calendar of time. The future unrolls ahead of us as our world becomes steadily warmer. There seems to be no undo climate button we all agree on. Some world leaders appear to be fingering the fossil fast forward button as if humanity were still in charge.
No Climate Undo Button But We Can Throttle Back
Much of the damage seems irreversible unless we repair it soon. We have torn down the forests and pillaged the ocean with plastic. There are too many people on Earth and their number is beyond control. Planting trees won’t fix this. We have to stop using fossil fuel now.
That’s real tough one. We may have to walk to work until electric transport catches up. We might have no central heating in winter, or air conditioning in summer time. The wealthy few among us would have a workaround of course. The rest of us will have to live like people in the developing world. That would be tough. How do we really know climate is changing?
The Evidence Is Everywhere If We Look With Open Eyes
Rainforests are drying out. This is why we can’t extinguish runaway fires in Australia and the Amazon as easily as before. The frozen Arctic is melting. The permafrost is flowing away into the ocean. These events are releasing stored carbon into our atmosphere, and warming the earth further. There is no quick fix, no undo climate button for this problem.
The evidence is there if we care to look around us. Our fingerprints are in rising sea levels, and more extreme weather. However, some world leaders still plan no further than their immediate goals, and some of these are short-sighted. Young people see visions, while some older people dream dreams of their past.
Perhaps we should hand the baton to the ‘Greta Thunbergs’ while we can. That’s because they stand to inherit the earth after we baby boomers are gone.
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