More and more people are coming to understand the reality of climate change. I think I like the phrase climate change better than global warming. Somehow, it just seems more self-evident. I understand climate change is being driven by warmer global temperatures. All the dire predictions from decades past are now starting to come true. If you don't believe me, perhaps just watch the Evening News? I have a really bad feeling Mother Nature is just getting started. Storms are going to become more violent, more frequent, and more unusual. So-called thousand-year storms will simply become spring or summer, nothing too unusual. None of this is new. We've known this was going to happen at least since the 1960s. Some may argue much longer ago than that. Here's a simple question - is there really no cost the pollution we are pumping into the atmosphere 24 hours a day 365 days a year? Let's not forget about our relentless clear cutting of forests in addition to all the dirty energy. The easy energy we've had for the last 100 plus years comes with a steep price tag. Can we fix it?
I don't think so. The radical deep changes required to mitigate this threat are far beyond what are so-called leadership is capable of. Too many of us want to have our cake and eat it too. We want others to sacrifice, not us. You people in the third world have less kids. No, you Chinese cannot have the middle-class lifestyle that we enjoy. No, you cannot use coal to heat your homes in winter. Too bad you don't have enough wind or solar to stay warm. Am I willing to give up my nice house, car and much of the power I use? Probably not. How many other Americans feel the same way I do? Almost half of us don't recognize a problem unless it affects us directly. The other half want to do the right thing until it becomes inconvenient or affects property values. I'm looking at you California, yeah homelessness sucks but I don't want affordable housing anywhere near me. I'm sure this is not limited to California. Any well off zip code has little interest in really helping the homeless. OK I'm digressing. Let me get back on track.
Another reason I don't think we can fix climate change has to do with math. Solar, wind, and hydropower are indeed making great strides. The problem is the gulf between what these can actually produce and what we actually need. The cake eaters want to wave a magic technology wand at the problem and make it go away. Bam! Problem solved and I didn't have to do anything! If we can figure out how to store electricity for long periods of time, maybe that will change the equation. Once again, the magical technology wand appears! That's great if it works one day but simply hoping some technological marvel will save us from the ravages of climate change, I think is wishful thinking. I'm leery of magical technological solutions and unproven financial solutions such as carbon taxes. And plain old-fashioned corruption is always present. Paying to pollute does not seem like a great solution. Even trying to offset pollution by doing something quote “green” seems fishy to me.
Another problem we face in regards to climate change is international disunity. Even here in the West far too many people don't understand the gravity of the situation we face. Their wallets make understanding impossible. One of America's two political parties, the republicans, simply refuse to acknowledge the facts of climate change. The Democrats may be a little better but don't want to do anything that would be too upsetting to the average voter. They are afraid to ask for real change, perhaps understandably so. That's just the USA. The Europeans may be a little better at developing green energy and moving in the right direction. Make no mistake, there is a lot of creative accounting going on there as well. China is still largely dependent on coal and oil for their energy. Russia is still dependent on fossil fuels. Africa, South America and the Middle East all rely on fossil fuels not only for energy but income as well. The UN is far too weak to lead such a change. The United States may be able to lead such a change but that's going to be difficult with half the population refusing to recognize the problem and many of the other half in the “don't inconvenience me” camp.
Sorry to sound so bleak. The near term is bleak, let's face it. But as time goes by storms get worse, fires get more outrageous, heat waves more common, blizzards more severe; skepticism will change to what can we do? The question is will we figure it out and act accordingly in time to prevent the most catastrophic effects of climate change. The deniers are slowly coming around. We are already seeing wars related to climate change, climate change refugees and islands literally sinking into the rising ocean. The deniers are finding their position increasingly untenable. We will have to find solutions that spread sacrifice equitably around the world. Yes, technological solutions will have a role to play but the bigger thing I think we'll be us as individuals learning how to get by without wasting so much energy. We can and will learn how to live within Earth's limits.
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