The environmental countdown is ticking faster and faster, but you’d barely know it from the response of humanity to the impending explosion that is climate change and global warming.
I’ve just read an extract in the Guardian from Paul Brown’s book, Global Warming, that shows just how close the world is to catastrophic climate change.
The extract looks at how close the global environment is to the “tipping point” - the point at which increasing numbers of scientists believe “it is theoretically possible to trigger runaway climate change, making the earth’s atmosphere so different that most of life would be threatened”.
The tipping point is believed to be a temperature rise of just 2C on pre-industrial levels.
So far, the global environment has warmed by 0.8C but that doesn’t take into account the greenhouse gases that have been pouring into the atmosphere in ever increasing amounts since the 1970s.
The reason for the delaying effect is that the cool oceans act as a delaying mechanism while they catch up with the atmosphere.
The best estimates are that there is a 25- to 30-year time lag between greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and their full heat-trapping potential taking effect.
In other words, it is not enough for us to simply sit back and say “oh, the West should cut emissions by 5.2% by 2012″ as the Kyoto Protocol set out. The consensus among climate scientists is that a global emissions cut of between 60 and 80 percent on current levels is required over the next 40 years.
Emissions have to be cut back now, they have to be cut back hard and there is no time left to spare.
People must start making their voices heard, they must start cutting back themselves and they must start evicting the irresponsible, criminal and gutless lackeys of big business from political office.
Only a few will cut back voluntarily, which means ‘the stick’ is going to be much in evidence, starting with increased taxes ( as in the increased rates for 4×4s in London announced today) and with all kinds of penalties. The legal situation has already been tightened up in for fighting terrorism so this will come in handy to quell riots and other forms of protest. Of course it’s too little, too late and you can guarantee that the main impetus is to preserve the status quo of the politicians rather than do anything to try and avert catastrophe.