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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/