The Urgent Need for Climate Action

John Scales Avery - Wikipedia

by John Scales Avery

One reason why the Glasgow Climate conference failed so miserably to produce urgently needed

climate action was that humans tend to react to what is close to them. Money to pay the rent is

urgent, while a climate catastrophe seems to be a distant threat.

Cultural inertia

A second reason is cultural inertia. All of us find it very difficult to make rapid changes in our

lifestyles. Our educational and political systems also change very slowly. Automobile factories take

a long time to build, and they continue to produce petroleum-driven vehicles. Many people earn

their livings from the fossil fuel industry.

Avoiding climate disaster is a global problem

Finally, avoiding a climate catastrophe is an international problem. Historically, industrialized

countries have been responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions, and people in less

developed countries, such as India, feel that they therefore have a right to use their abundant coal to

raise the standard of living and to combat poverty.

Warnings from the Antarctic and Arctic regions

Although the worst effects of catastrophic climate change lie in the distant future, there are recent

warnings that tell us that a climate disaster may be nearer than we thought. The Arctic and Antarctic

regions are warming more than twice as fast as the remainder of the world. In the Antarctic region,

the vast Thwaites glacier, sometimes called ‘the Doomsday Glacier’, has recently exhibited so

many cracks that scientists fear that it may shatter into small pieces like a windscreen. If this

happens, the event may trigger the collapse of other nearby glaciers through a mechanism called

‘Marine Ice Cliff Instability’. This could mean several meters of sea level rise, threatening all

coastal cities throughout the world.

Other warnings come from the Arctic. For example, a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit was

recorded at the Siberian town of Verkhovansk, 70 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, and this

reading has been confirmed by the World Meterological Organization. Such a temperature would be

more appropriate for Spain or Italy.

Observers on top of the Greenland ice sheet can see water pouring from summer lakes into

crevasses that reach all the way to the bottom of the sheet. This water acts as a lubricant, speeding

the flow of the entire ice sheet towards the sea.

The Arctic Ocean will soon be entirely ice-free during one or two months of the year. This will

initiate a feedback loop involving the albedo effect: Ice reflects sunlight, while dark sea water

absorbs heat from the sun, leading to further warming of the Arctic Ocean.

Another serious warning comes from the International Pamel on Climate Change (IPCC). The most

recent IPCC report warns us that without urgent action, climate change may soon be beyond our

ability to adapt. 

The Keeling Curve

The Keeling Curve measures the atmospheric concentration of CO2 at the Mount Loa observatory

in Hawaii. The concentration passed 400 parts per million in 2013, and it is not only still rising but

rising at an accelerated rate. Scientists say that the CO2 concentration level has not been this high

for at least 2 million years.

What will happen if we fail?

What will happen if we fail in our efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change? Then, in the long

run, most of the earth’s surface will become uninhabitable. Many species of plants and animals,

unable to move, will become extinct. Humans may survive, but the global population of humans

will be very much reduced by heat death, famine and wars.

We need urgent and radical action

For all these reasons, it is urgent that we take drastic climate action while there is still time to do so.

Let us remember Greta Thunberg’s words, ‘We need hope, of course we do, but the one thing that

we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere’

So let us act with urgency, for the sake of future generations, and for the sake of our beautiful

planet.

What actions must we take?

1. The extraction of fossil fuels must stop. Currently China and India make massive use of coal.

Countries such as Russia and Saidi Arabia extract and export oil and natural gas. The Canadian Tar

Sands project contributes enormously to greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, the Biden

Administration, although pledged to climate action, auctions off petroleum drilling rights , both

offshore and in the Arctic.

2. Subsidies for fossil fuel corporations must stop. A recent report found that these corporations

received 5.9 trillion dollars in subsidies in 2020.

3. Renewable energy projects must be encouraged and supported. The Green New Deal visualises

governmental action analogous to FDR’s New Deal to build urgently needed renewable energy

structure. Renewable energy is now generally cheaper than energy derived from fossil fuels, but

governmental help is still needed.

A new freely downloadable book

I would like to announce the publication of a book entitled “WARNINGS FROM THE POLES” It

describes the Arcric and Antarctic regions, which are warming more than twice as fast as the

remainder of the world.. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following

link:

https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/01/Warnings-from-the-Poles.pdf

Other books and articles about global problems are on these links

https://www.johnavery.info/

http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/

https://wsimag.com/authors/716-john-scales-avery