Time to take on the world
A young friend of mine visited me recently, and his passion for environmental activism struck me. I asked him to write down some thoughts on how he sees the global situation. I give my column over to 25-year-old Jack Delemarre.
It’s often said that climate change is a tricky issue to tackle because its effects are difficult to see. That may have been true a decade ago, but is no longer a valid excuse. This summer, here in Canada, we experienced it even in our most populous cities. We experienced the worst, most intense and destructive wildfire season to date, scorching more than 15 million hectares. And it was one of the coolest summers we will likely experience for the rest of our lives.
The rest of the world is experiencing withering heatwaves, longer and harsher droughts, and devastating flooding. The climate refugee crisis is already underway. Tensions are rising due to water shortages, resulting in internal conflicts and civil unrest, and millions of displaced people. These are circumstances that are only going to intensify if we do not act accordingly.
If the planet warms beyond two degrees, we will begin to trigger various ‘tipping points.’ Think the total destruction of the Amazon rainforest, the permanent disappearance of major ice sheets, melting permafrost and the death of coral reefs. These are events from which there is no going back, and that will actually speed up global warming in devastating feedback loops.
Assuming we maintain the status quo and not honour climate initiatives such as the Paris Agreement (the IPCC’s ‘middle-of-the-road’ estimate predicts warming of two degrees by 2050, significantly over the 1.5 target set in Paris), by 2050, we can expect mass extinction and the total collapse of entire eco-systems on which we depend; worldwide crop failures, water shortages, and potentially billions of displaced refugees with nowhere to go.
We may well see the collapse of civilisation as we know it, as we fight over increasingly scarce resources that must be shared by a projected population of 10 billion people. This is a global crisis of unprecedented scale that we must act to mitigate, this very moment. What kind of world is in store for us, let alone our children? 2050 is 27 years away. How old will you be? How old will your children be? Forget any plans you had for a tranquil retirement. Those years will likely be the hardest of our lives.
It’s easy to feel despair, defeat, powerlessness. It’s easy to react with denial or complacency, to think “I’m doing my part” or “This won’t affect me.” It’s easy to pass blame onto politicians and banks who strike shady deals with massive, seemingly untouchable corporations while they continue to illegally, and without permission, decimate Indigenous lands so as to lay oil pipelines. That’s surely beyond our control?
It isn’t. We are all responsible for our planet, even more so in the West, but none of us chose to be born into these inherently unsustainable societies. What’s done is done – what really matters is how we move forward.
If you are concerned, terrified even, of what is happening to our planet and society, I call upon you to take action. Take a stand. Fight for your world, for your children’s world.
Some good news is that millions of people have already started. And the greatest news is that as it turns out, its real simple stuff.
Buy local, and buy secondhand. Switch to green electricity and insulate your home. Eat less meat and more plants. Check out local activism events, they’re everywhere. Vote at every level for political candidates that champion environmental policies, and write to your MPs urging them to tackle this (they listen to us because we keep them in office). Move your money to credit unions that invest in green initiatives. Don’t book that flight this year if you don’t have to. Don’t go for that drive if you don’t have to: take the bus, train or ride a bike.
These options have been available to us for a while now, but never has the situation been as dire that we need to start implementing them now. Even if it’s just one seemingly insignificant change, if you have the power to do it, do it. Because we have to fight for our world. At the very least, we have to be able to say we tried.
Most of the facts and predictions I made above are based on information and resources compiled theweek.ooo A three-part documentary clarifies the situation, how we got here and how do we get out. It’s what stirred me to act. I would recommend starting here if you, like me, are feeling overwhelmed at where the hell to even begin.