Climate Change Concerns: Our growth has limits PT 1

You’re on your own.

If you want climate change concerns to be addressed in your lifetime you’ll have to address them by yourself.

As you may already know, and bearing the UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexico in mind, greenhouse gas emissions will not be reduced this year. (Or the year after that, or the year after that, or the year after that).

The results of the summit are best summarized by the cartoon below:


(Dolighan.com; photo from London Free Press, Dec. 7)

“OK, I think we finally have all the oars in...”

No, we don’t. We obviously don’t.


“... We can begin to move forward on climate change.”

No, we can’t. We obviously can’t.

We will suffer much more tragic loss (up to this point in time, our losses have not been tragic enough) before governments act collectively to reduce carbon emissions and slow global warming.

We know the truth.

For example:

“Human activities are imposing enormous costs on the Earth’s climate and other life-support systems... Whether one looks at the loss of forests, fisheries, species, or climate stability, the level of environmental destruction is very high and, in almost all cases, rising rapidly.” (The Limits of Growth, essay by J. G. Speth)


Obviously, not rapidly enough for governments to notice.

“The exponential expansions of human populations and, even more, economic activity are the main drivers of these momentous transformations. For all the material blessings economic progress has provided, its impact on the natural world must be counted in the balance as tragic loss.”

After Cancun, some may say that there is still hope for the long run, or, that you’re not entirely on your own.

One such person - Gwynne Dyer, author of Climate Wars and Crawling from the Wreckage (his latest book).

More to follow.

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