"Climate Change Our Next Challenge"
clisir | 01.09.2012 14:57 | Climate Chaos
Climate activists scale Tower Bridge & drop banner.
We are already committed to a 0.6°C rise on 1990 levels, simply from the long-term warming effects of what we’ve already put in the atmosphere. Even the IPCC (notorious for underestimating global climate change to achieve scientific consensus) in its most optimistic SRES scenario – known as ‘B1’ – sees us approaching close to a 2°C rise in global temperature by 2100. In this model, northerly latitudes, including the Arctic, would see rises anywhere between 3.5 – 6°C by century’s end. That might not sound like so much until you realise that the temperature difference between a giant ice sheet covering Edinburgh, Berlin, Moscow and New York was only 5°C lower than now, during the last Ice Age.
The biggest challenge is not in physically doing what is necessary – we have the technology and skills to transition to a sustainable society without a huge amount of difficulty. The challenge is in overcoming the doubts and confusion sown by those with vested interests in preventing change. To overcome our fears and take that first step into new territory. It is the challenge of confronting the forces of demography, globalisation and climate change and asking serious questions about the way we organise our economies, societies and local communities, the way we use our Earth’s natural resources, how we distribute them and how we preserve them for future generations.
In truth, our biggest challenge is a moral challenge.
And we face it now.
The biggest challenge is not in physically doing what is necessary – we have the technology and skills to transition to a sustainable society without a huge amount of difficulty. The challenge is in overcoming the doubts and confusion sown by those with vested interests in preventing change. To overcome our fears and take that first step into new territory. It is the challenge of confronting the forces of demography, globalisation and climate change and asking serious questions about the way we organise our economies, societies and local communities, the way we use our Earth’s natural resources, how we distribute them and how we preserve them for future generations.
In truth, our biggest challenge is a moral challenge.
And we face it now.
clisir
Homepage:
http://climatesiren.wordpress.com/
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