the ONLY GREEN list

  

        

"Climate change isn’t so much a failure of human nature as it is the predictable result of a small number of corporations putting their profits ahead of humanity’s future and the planet’s well-being."   Jason Mark, The Nation magazine 

                                                    Ecologist Opinion, March 19, 2020                                                      

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

So… we, as a united human population, are willing to go to War over a contagious virus that has a 3-4% mortality rate (at most).  Yet we continue to sit on our hands and even argue about the climate crisis that is killing tens of thousands more humans right now via air pollution.

Admittedly, if every human on earth gets the Covid-19 virus, the number of deaths could be a quarter billion people.  So it’s nothing to sneeze at (pun intended).  Yet as long as we’re fixated on avoiding this fate, the planet has not been in better condition in decades.

In very short order, air pollution in China and many other places has simply dropped away.  The foul waters of Venice have become nearly crystal clear.  All this has occurred because of the lack of human activity.  Which only proves beyond any doubt whatsoever that it is human activity that has driven all the adverse consequences of the climate crisis.

The planet is resilient.  Nature is resilient.  However, the thousands of species that have become extinct in just our lifetimes will not and can never be restored.  The runaway melting at the north and south poles and Greenland is well beyond the tipping point.  Florida and Bangladesh will cease to exist this century… nothing can stop this from happening.  All major cities on coastlines will have to relocate.  It is already too late to stop that.

The Amazon rainforest, which we once thought of as eternal and inviolate, is racing toward its own tipping point and will soon revert to savannah offering no carbon sink no more.  The coral reefs of the world, which succor and support most of the oceans’ diversity, are also racing toward the point of no return.

But for now, we’ve severely curtailed our output of carbon, and the immediate results are easy to see.

The science that most of us believe in and rely on has told us clearly that we now have less than a decade to change our ways.  The response to Covid-19 has shown us clearly that we could change our ways.

But it would clearly take a War footing, and too few of us seem to be able to convince the rest of us.  Many more will die than Covid-19 could ever take, but it’s the economy, stupid.    

Supporting article:  https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/20/coronavirus-what-the-global-response-means-for-the-climate-crisis.html                                                            

                     

                                                  

                          TOGETHER IN A CLOSET                                                                 by the Ecologist

    Human overpopulation has become the bane of the planet.  It first hit 2 billion one hundred years ago.  Fifty years later... just fifty years ago... it had doubled again to 4 billion.  Since then it has almost doubled again.

   There are nearly 8 billion humans now on the planet... more people are alive right now than have ever existed in human history all told before now.  Is it any wonder why resources are dwindling?  Or why there is so much more pollution?

    We all have one thing in common, those of us who grace these pages.  We know, a priori, what’s happening.  And it’s really bad news for our grandchildren.  Sooner or later (we fervently hope), some one or some grouping will rise up and lead us all to where we want to go: to a zero impact on our world.  We are essentially all together inside a closet, and the only door leads to the vacuum of space. That single human with the cigar in the corner of our closet must never be allowed to light it again.

    The COP21 Conference in Paris raised some hopes, but very few of those pledges are being met, and they weren't enough to begin with.  The Great Buffoon withdrew the USA from its pledges, despite it being one of the two biggest polluters on Earth.  And most recently, COP25 ended pretty much in disaster.

    We must all stand up against this self-destructiveness.  It's becoming harder to not believe it's already too late.

    This is all we know how to do right now, but we’ve stepped up and are doing something.  Wishing the same for each of you.                                                                



"Since climate change and the global economy now affect us all, we have to develop a sense of oneness of humanity."       Dali Lama