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The climate crisis must be our pre-eminent policy priority. It's our future at stake - not yours. A Common Goal of Survival Our planet is headed towards complete Armageddon – much faster than scientists previously predicted. Glaciers are melting. Ice shelves are breaking off. Natural disasters are happening at unprecedented rates. Deaths from pollution are skyrocketing. What does it even say about our human race, our society as a whole that we even need to continue in such discussion? There should be no debate. At this point – we should all be working together in absolute unity toward a common goal. A common goal of survival. A common goal of protecting our children at all costs. If we are to survive as a species – we must reduce our emissions by 80% by 2050. The bottom line is that this means a bold and comprehensive shift in our energy priorities starting now. Cutting or emissions by 80% over the next 40 years will not be easy. It is the greatest challenge we have ever faced. The industry needs to be cutting emissions by 2% per year to reach this target. Not increasing emissions. Not defending emissions. This is nothing less than the responsibility of every person and industry on this planet and multinational corporations are not exempt. Climate change leaves no room for apathy, laziness, selfishness or greed. The extensive melting of Arctic sea-ice in the northern summer of 2007 starkly demonstrated that serious climate-change impacts are already happening, both more rapidly and at lower global temperature increases than projected. Human activity has already pushed the planet’s climate past several critical “tipping points”, including the initiation of major ice sheet loss. The loss in summer of all eight million square kilometres of Arctic sea-ice now seems inevitable, and may occur as early as 2010, a century ahead of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections. There is already enough carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere to initiate ice sheet disintegration in West Antarctica and Greenland and to ensure that sea levels will rise metres in coming decades. The projected speed of change, with temperature increases greater than 0.3°C per decade and the consequent rapid shifting of climatic zones will, if maintained, likely result in most ecosystems failing to adapt, causing the extinction of many animal and plant species. The oceans will become more acidic, endangering much marine life. The Earth’s passage into an era of dangerous climate change accelerates as each of these tipping points is passed. If this acceleration becomes too great, humanity will no longer have the power to reverse the processes we have set in motion. We stand at a time where we still have the power to make a choice. Only by dealing with the full scale and urgency of the problem can we create a realistic path back to a safe-climate world. Targets should be chosen and actions taken that can actually solve the problem in a timely manner. A temperature cap of 2–2.4°C, as proposed within the United Nations framework, would take the planet’s climate beyond the temperature range of the last million years and into catastrophe. The loss of the Arctic sea-ice unambiguously represents dangerous climate change. As the tipping point for this event was around two decades ago when temperatures were about 0.3°C lower than at present, we propose a longterm precautionary warming cap of 0.5°C and equilibrium atmospheric greenhouse gas level of not more than 320 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide. The USA’s leading climate scientist, James Hansen, stated recently that we should set an atmospheric carbon dioxide target that is low enough to avoid “the point of no return”. To achieve this, he says, we must not only eliminate current greenhouse gas emissions but also remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and take urgent steps to “cool the planet”. These scientific imperatives are incompatible with the “realities” of “politics as usual” and “business as usual”. Our conventional mode of politics is shortterm, adversarial and incremental, fearful of deep, quick change and simply incapable of managing the transition at the necessary speed. The climate crisis will not respond to incremental modification of the business-as-usual model. There is an urgent need to reconceive the issue we face as a sustainability emergency, that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. The feasibility of rapid transitions is well established historically. We now need to “think the unthinkable”, because the sustainability emergency is now not so much a radical idea as simply an indispensable course of action if we are to return to a safe-climate planet. CLIMATE CODE RED These scientific imperatives are incompatible with the “realities” of “politics as usual” and “business as usual”. Our conventional mode of politics is short-term, adversarial and incremental, fearful of deep, quick change and simply incapable of managing the transition at the necessary speed. The climate crisis will not respond to incremental modification of the business-as-usual model. There is an urgent need to re-conceive the issue we face as a sustainability emergency, that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. The feasibility of rapid transitions is well established historically. We now need to “think the unthinkable”, because the sustainability emergency is now not so much a radical idea as simply an indispensable course of action if we are to return to a safeclimate planet. Climate policy is characterized by the habituation of low expectations and a culture of failure. There is an urgent need to understand global warming and the tipping points for dangerous impacts that we have already crossed as a sustainability emergency, that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. We are now in a race between climate tipping points and political tipping points. 5 crucial keys to a safe-climate future 1. Our goal is a safe-climate future – we have no right to bargain away species or human lives. 2. We are facing rapid warming impacts: the danger is immediate, not just in the future. 3. For a safe climate future, we must take action now to stop emissions and to cool the earth. 4. Plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society. 5. Recognize a climate and sustainability emergency, because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual. http://www.carbonequity.info/climatecodered/summary.html We have reached a pivotal point. This is now a matter of life or death. The statistics regarding children’s health are staggering. We now know we have perhaps well reached the tipping point in regards to climate change – we can no longer bend and sacrifice to appease corporate interests at the expense of our children. To do so – would be nothing less than a crime against future generations. This is where we start to re-design the way we think and live. This is where we take back our cities. This is where we take back control of our lives. This is where we start. Although leadership from provincial and federal governments is crucial in negotiating international agreements, setting frameworks and standards and for providing fiscal and financial incentives, when it comes to practical action on the ground, city leadership must take centre stage. Mayors and elected officials have responsibilities in areas key to taking swift action to reduce emissions, and can show leadership in taking decisive and radical action. It is at city level that innovation and progress on pollution and thus climate change is most likely to be achieved. The climate crisis must be our pre-eminent policy priority. It's our future at stake - not yours. On behalf of youth everywhere - thank you for your time and consideration. London Chapter | Council of Canadians | Environment and Climate Change Committee http://www.canadians.org/ http://cleanairforchildren.blogspot.com/ http://londoncoc.blogspot.com/