Facing Up To Global Warming: what is going on and how you can make a difference?
In 1972, a startling
book was published called Limits
to Growth .
This book became hugely influential in the environmental movement, and while it
alerted us to the fragility of our future on planet Earth, it also, inadvertently,
helped to eventually undermine the credibility of environmentalism. The book
predicted when certain non-renewables, including fossil fuels and metals, would
become exhausted. The predictions were based on the best available knowledge at
that time, but what it never envisaged in the early 1970’s, was that within a
decade humans would be extracting oil, gas, and minerals in some of the
remotest, extreme, and fragile places on Earth … a process that has continued
and expanded to the present day. So the predictions proved incorrect in
practice, but it reinforced the idea that all resources are limited and are
slowly being exhausted.
This book became a
driving force for many environmental scientists who realized that we have to
act both collectively and individually to preserve our home, planet Earth, with
its unique biosphere and which is home to millions of different living
organisms of which we are just one species. For me personally, being an environmental
scientist has been a long and often disappointing journey and at various times
I have been shocked, scared, and often depressed by the unfolding of the current
crisis which is so intertwined with global warming. But, to my surprise, in recent
years I have begun to feel more hopeful that perhaps we can deal with our climate
and resource problems to create a sustainable planet. So in this book, I have attempted
to explain what the problems are and suggest some solutions. However, the book
comes with a warning. During the 15 chapters that follow, I am going to make a
lot of you really annoyed and possibly upset, I apologize in advance. I am not
trying to shock; I am simply putting the facts before you so that you can make up
your own mind. Neither am I telling anyone that their lifestyle is wrong, or alternatively,
that they are better than the next person because they have invested in green
energy or a hybrid car. The book is an overview; it is not a text on the theory
of sustainability or population dynamics; it simply looks at what the
individual should know and addresses some of the issues closest to our everyday
lives.
There are hundreds
of academic and specialist texts on sustainability, but they fail to link sustainability
to tackling global warming, especially at the individual level. Adopting any
form of sustainable actions in your life will cause significant effects both
direct and indirect. Such actions will lead to changes that will influence
economic and social norms … so sustainability if properly applied will mean
socio economic change. I begin the text by giving a brief overview of the
problems of climate change and the real difficulties that having such a rapidly
growing population is placing on the idea of a sustainable and equitable
planet. Discussions on population is always a very emotive issue and so I have
simply given some basic facts, and shown that as population grows our ability
to live sustainably on planet Earth becomes more challenging. So this is not a
comfortable book.
Is the text
political? I have tried not to be, but if you advocate changing people’s lifestyles,
then it will appear to be political. Then, we have the concept that everyone on
the planet matters and that the concept of global justice and human rights is important
when assessing the sustainability of our own lifestyles. So trying to avert these
climate-mediated crises by ensuring that everyone has enough for their needs without
being wasteful is a good starting point. However, that starting point has to be
an acknowledgment that all people are equal, and that we should all have the right
to pursue happiness and well-being. Is this naïve? Of course it is, but what
else are we to strive for in a truly global and fair society. Global warming
raises serious social as well as economic questions and many of these are going
to be very difficult to deal with in practice, and my aim is to try and make
you think about these issues from a personal perspective. Can we have finite
economic growth? Can we have finite consumerism? Unfortunately, the answer has
to be no to both of these questions, which means that both economists and
social geographers or planners have a lot of work to do and that we are going
to have to eventually reinvent our economy and social environment to achieve
these goals.
There are also many
other important environmental issues that we also need to consider and many of
these are also linked to global warming such as deforestation, exploitation of
new fossil fuel reserves, intensification of agriculture, and overexploitation
of water resources. However, many of these issues such as pollution, are less
important in the context of global warming, as we now have them largely under
control. We have made huge strides in dealing with air, water, and land
pollution over the past 40 years, and there are scientists and regulatory
bodies all dealing with these issues on an on-going basis. Such issues are
predominately local or at worst regional, but rarely global, and what is
important is that we have the technology and infrastructure to deal with them.
But controlling carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions must now be
everyone’s priority. If we have to reduce carbon emissions by 80 % by 2050 to
avert a global crisis, this will mean using significantly less energy in the developed
world than we currently use, and while this does not necessarily mean an
immediate and huge change in our everyday lives, it does mean changes to our
current lifestyles. This is not going to be easy and the burden has to be shared
by everyone. However, the fact is that people feel very threatened by the idea
of altering their lifestyle, even when change can be for the better.
We also need to
understand that some sectors of society are using more than their fair share of
global resources, but that in the context of global warming everyone must act
responsibly if we are to succeed in mitigating climate change. Those in developing
countries also desire the technology, food, travel, etc. we enjoy, and to break
this cycle we in the developed world need to begin to pull back from our
current high-energy lifestyle while allowing the poorer nations to develop and
become sustainable.
This book will never
be welcomed by those who are pretty happy with the status quo and who have not
become genuinely concerned, possibly scared, by the possibility of what global
warming may do to our home, planet Earth. This is a very general text that
looks at different aspects of our lives which we, as individuals, have control
over. It is simple things like travel, food, recycling, using resources … all those
things which we are all involved in on a daily basis; and how our actions
affect the future of planet Earth and our ability to sustain that ever growing
human population. I hope that this book will help you think and act from a
position of knowledge and reassurance.
I hope that the
majority of you will be reassured that we are beginning to tackle global
warming successfully, but in order to succeed in stabilizing our new climate, and
I believe we can, we need your help through direct action. You really can make
a difference. This book is a personal journey and during it I will be asking
you to do various things. Some are critical others will be just things that I
hope you will try, but to work, I need a commitment from you. The journey is
not free, it comes at a cost, and you have to decide just how much you are
willing to pay for your planet.
This
is about your future.
Nick Gray
Trinity Centre for the Environment
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