And what it means if we don’t.
It’s not that nobody is trying to stop the climate crisis; it’s that none of the major powers are. The science – and the signs we see everyday – point to disaster coming, and much sooner than expected. When I first accepted the seriousness of the problem of global warming, I thought my grandchildren would be affected. (I’m 46 and already have one, Keira.) As I investigated further, I realised that my children (Killoran, Marshall, Adrienne, and Natalia – two are stepchildren) were going to face a greatly diminished future, and could quite likely die unpleasantly and early. These were very hard things for a father to accept, and though I know I have not been the ideal father, I did want my children to inherit a better world.
I now know that it is highly unlikely that they will, though I am fighting as best I can for them. I managed to get myself trained by Al Gore to deliver the Inconvenient Truth presentations, and I’ve been giving those to whoever is interested – and many are. I decided that wasn’t enough, so I am running for the Green Party of Canada; whether elected or not, I hope to force all political parties to go green. Every day I talk to people or see evidence that people are changing, and want to change more. From Australia banning incandescent bulbs to Arnold’s moves in California, there is hope and there are solutions.
Despite this, the evidence is now becoming clearer that I may face the crippled future I feared for my children, and I may have the crushing experience of seeing civilization collapse in my time. Events are unfolding much more quickly than the scientists expected. Dr. Lovelock (creator the Gaia hypotheses) predicts that we’re already too far gone and that we will experience the beginning of the end by 2020. That’s only 12 years away. Even if he is overly pessimistic, and I very much hope he is, there is plenty of evidence pointing to problems that could easily cause wars and the collapse of civilization somewhere between 2025 and 2050: severe water shortages, more frequent and more deadly storms, droughts, and fires, and diseases are spreading. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have sharpened their scythes and are mounting up.
So why the hell is no serious action happening? My children, and yours, and very likely me and you will lose everything, from our dignity and hope to our lives, unless someone does something, and soon. As George Monbiot sums up: ‘…everyone is watching and waiting for everyone else to move. The unspoken universal thought is this: “if it were really so serious, surely someone would do something?”’
I encounter this attitude, this faith in the powers-that-be, whenever I give my presentations or try to stir some action. Many people are not concerned because they simply cannot believe that our Prime Ministers and Presidents would let it happen. We have abdicated our responsibilities as parents and stewards to politicians. But we have trusted the wrong people with our children’s future. If you investigate the seriousness of the climate crisis, as I had to do before I could convince myself to do something about it, you discover along the way that our ‘leaders’ are not. They are too beholden to corporations, to vested interests, and to the idea that they will time to react when any crisis arises.
But they won’t, and neither will we. By the time we see the Horseman onrushing, it will be too late to stop them, and none will be spared, not poor, not rich. Unfortunately, we tend to believe that, because our politicians are not raising the alarm, there is no need to worry yet. And few of us see the point in completely changing our personal lifestyle when others are still buying Hummers and coal-fired plants are still going up. We all share some of the blame, of course, but I blame two countries in particular: the United States and Canada (I am Canadian). The American record of obstructing action on the climate crisis is well-known and long-standing, and unlikely to change even when Mr. Bush is replaced. The Americans are simply too tied into beliefs that their way is the right way, and that they have the right to consume as much of this Earth as they choose.
I blame my own country because we have the opportunity to act as a conscience to the United States, which all-too-frequently submerges its own. Because we are so close to the United States and so much like Americans in many ways, we are hard for them to ignore. Had Canada followed the European model rather than the American one, we would enjoy six weeks of vacation each year, high-speed electric trains, wind farms, much more efficient cars, and so on. And had Canadians been true to ourselves, we would have protected the nature we claim to value so highly, instead of selling it out for a pittance to massive corporations – and then subsidizing them with our own tax dollars, to boot. And had we done this, the Americans might have been sufficiently shamed into examining their own ways.
Al Gore tried to get a mass movement going with the Live Earth concerts; I try to create local movement whenever I can. At some point very soon, we must put aside our differences and force change. (December 8 would be a good day to start.) Just as kings and rulers ceded power only when we, the people, forced them to do so, so will our current politicians and corporate leaders only change their ways if we insist. Pointedly, repeatedly, and with great determination. Imagine the monks of Burma on a global scale.
If you don’t believe the problem is as serious as I say, please do the responsible thing and do your own research. If you listen to scientists, not talking heads, you will know the truth, you will see we are in trouble, and you will know we must act now. If you see the danger and don’t give a damn about the rest of us, get out of the way or get run over. If you don’t believe we can change our governments and our future, check human history. We can overcome. We have, and we must now.
