Save the planet

“We are on the edge of the greatest die-off humanity has ever seen,” said Lovelock. “We will be lucky if 20% of us survive what is coming. We should be scared stiff.”

Lovelock has delivered such warnings before, but this weekend they have a special resonance. Last week in Bangkok, Thailand, the world’s governments finalised this year’s third and final report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) setting out how humanity might save itself from the worst effects of climate change.

In it was a message of hope, albeit a faint one. The report set out a complex mix of political, economic and technological solutions. If they all worked, said the report, they could achieve huge cuts in the 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by humanity into the air each year, thus keeping global temperature rises below 3C. (Source)

Will the Earth resemble Mars in fifty years time? Will Earth be arid, empty, and lifeless? Is this fear mongering or the far sighted view of a realist?

Whatever arguments are put up in the denial camps, it is clear that our climate is changing dramatically. I notice it in Cambodia even from one year to another. Here everybody dreads April and May. Many people get out of the country for those months because it is so hot and sticky. You sweat wearing a minimum of clothing while surrounded by fans. Even a dip in the pool brings no relief because it is too hot and muggy.

However, this year April and May have so far been tolerable. It is uncomfortable at 34 degrees and 100 humidity but it is tolerable - a far cry from last years experience. It has been raining a couple of times a week. It didn't rain last year.

These changes are profound, sudden and worrying. What does this mean for the rainy season? Will we get a monsoon or a drought? The fortune tellers in Cambodia are predicting a bad harvest and whether one believes in that or not, change is coming. I have already mentioned the climate changes in Ireland last winter. And the changes in these two countries are just highlighted because of my observations.

Climate change is bringing disease, flooding and drought. Tropical diseases are finding their way into temperate zones. Will Europe have to deal with Malaria again? How about Dengue or Japanese Encephalitides?

Additional anticipated effects include sea level rise of 110 to 770 mm (0.36 to 2.5 feet) between 1990 and 2100,[40] repercussions to agriculture, possible slowing of the thermohaline circulation, reductions in the ozone layer, increased intensity and frequency of hurricanes and extreme weather events, lowering of ocean pH, and the spread of diseases such as malaria[41] and dengue fever.[42] One study predicts 18% to 35% of a sample of 1,103 animal and plant species would be extinct by 2050, based on future climate projections. (Source)

It is time to do something. Everybody can save the planet in their own way but governmental cooperation is necessary to really turn the tide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report

report set out a complex mix of political, economic and technological solutions. If they all worked, said the report, they could achieve huge cuts in the 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by humanity into the air each year, thus keeping global temperature rises below 3C.

It would involve much international cooperation when the current mentality seems to be "a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face" (Blackadder). Governments, be pragmatic. More climate change is coming and lifestyles and habits are going to have to change. US senator Obama acknowledges this:

The need to drastically change our energy policy is no longer a debatable proposition. It is not a question of whether, but how; not a question of if, but when. For the sake of our security, our economy, our jobs and our planet, the age of oil must end in our time. (Source)

Let's not kill the planet until space travel is more developed and we can escape our own mess. Governments, be responsible enough and adult enough to acknowledge your responsibility in the resolution of this crisis.

Anyone else feel like screaming into a void on this issue?

Note to self:

Putting a lid on a saucepan will not prevent ant invasions. Make room in the fridge or eat everything. Guess what greeted me this morning when I went to eat the remainder of last night's dinner?

My friend and the spiders