More than one billion people will call for the protection of our planet today as they gather around the world to celebrate Earth Day. Their mission: to raise support for a more sustainable future as climate change continues to wreak havoc across the globe.
Frustrated by the lack of "green" policy at the international level, campaigners are now calling for a new deal to be signed at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit this June.
Forging a new agreement couldn't be more critical -- the Kyoto protocol, which legally binds us to curb global carbon emissions, will expire this year.
After the Copenhagen talks collapsed three years ago, world governments promised to sign a new deal in 2012. But, they are now backtracking on that pledge. Instead, they are looking to 2020 as their new timeline.
According to Lord Stern, author of a landmark paper on the economics of climate change, "postponing an agreement until then marks "a collective failure" which "is taking considerable risks with the planet."
Last November, the United Nations predicted that there will be a rise in "wild weather" over the next century. A week later, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that the world is on the brink of irreversible climate change. According to its research, global warming will hit the point of no return in five years in time.
That gives us five years to act; five years to draw up a plan, put it into action and make sure that it works. In other words, we're entering a state of "emergency." According to Nasa climate scientist Jim Hansen, we have created a dangerous weather system which will be impossible to fix in the future unless we take action now.
He believes that we have an overriding moral duty to hand over a safe home to both our children and our grandchildren: "Our parents didn't know that they were causing a problem for future generations, but we can only pretend that we don't know because the science is now crystal clear."
Hansen regards human induced climate change to be a grave "moral issue" on par with slavery. British barrister Polly Higgins adopts a similar view. She believes that environmental degradation should be treated as an international peace crime just like genocide and other crimes against humanity.
She has asked the UN to accept "ecocide" as the fifth crime against peace: "Ecocide is in essence the very antithesis of life. It leads to resource depletion, and where there is an escalation of resource depletion, war comes chasing behind."
One need only remember the global food riots of 2007 and 2008 to recognize the huge potential for social unrest going forward. Some analysts believe that it was higher food prices that unleashed last year's Arab spring. As Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project points out, "What's emerging is an interconnected web of risks, with the threads of water stress, food insecurity, rising population and consumption now magnified by extreme weather and climatic change."
Clearly, we can not wait until 2020 for a new "green" deal. But, as Christiana Figueres, the UN's top official on climate change points out: "Making an agreement is not easy ... What we are looking at is nothing other than the biggest industrial and energy revolution that has ever been seen."
According to Jim Hansen, we need an immediate 6% cut in annual CO2 emissions. Failing to cut now means that by 2020, a more radical incision of 15% will need to be made.
If we don't get a new deal in Rio, individual countries and companies will have to embrace this challenge on their own. According to Sir David King, the UK's former chief scientist, this may be our best hope for curbing emissions.
Scotland already derives over 30% of its power from green sources. And Denmark plans to run on 100% renewable energy by 2050. Other nations will have to follow suit.
On a company level, we have to enter "a new paradigm for business characterized by responsibility, a re-alignment between cost and value, and scarce resources," says Ed Dowding founder of Sustaination: "Like any paradigm shift, there is a turbulence and a lack of clarity about how it will turn out, but the trends are clear for those who choose to see."
And on the individual level, we all have our part to play. "A sustainable society will only come about through the accumulated actions of billions of individuals," says Alexandra Cousteau, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
"The moment we become purely concerned with nature as something that sustains us, rather than something that feeds us spiritually, psychologically and emotionally" we have veered off course, says theologian Martin Palmer
So, on this Earth Day in the year 2012, let's all think about what we can do to help. Let's not look back on this time, 30 years from now with any regret -- our window for opportunity is still open. We still have time. In the words of Albert Einstein, "those with the privilege to know, have a duty to act." So, let's all come together and act, for "united" we shall stand and "divided" we shall fall.
Follow Aiko Stevenson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@AikoStevenson
According to the science of ecology, everything about life itself is furnished by Earth's ecosystems. Ecosystems provide not only our natural resources, the "goods" of ecosystems, ecosystems generate mankind's "life-supporting services", like oxygen, fresh water, pollination, the integrity of the atmosphere, all and every reason man exists. All ecosystems are integrated one to the other, and they all create the very life zone of Earth, her biosphere/ecosphere. And, they all have loops and feedbacks to the climate and the atmosphere.
Yet, today's green rarely addresses the most vital issue of our times, the salvation and protection of ecosystems and the plant and animal biodiversity that creates and sustains them. Our local recycling center was constructed over a life giving ecosystem, with more ecosystem death when they constructed the road to reach the center. Recently, this nation has begun to devour ecosystems for dead fields of solar panels and planet butchering windmills, but according to ecologists, man is "suicidal" when he kills ecosystems.
We need to go back to the beginning of our environmental consciousness and once again struggle to save ecosystems and biodiversity.
And to be clear, 'doing something' involves (unfortunately) more than recycling and turning off lightbulbs. It means pressuring your employers to behave responsible, making your politicians work for you, changing what you buy and who you buy it from, and taking the train not the plane.
Well said. In the words of Thomas Jefferson: "Every generation needs a new revolution." The climate crisis clearly must be ours, for it affects all life on Earth. Thank you kindly for your comment and i hope that all is well.
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/20/earth-days-dark-side-789496388/
The current malaise that we find ourselves in stems from an inherently bad attitude towards nature and the planet. "What is needed is nothing short of a full awakening similar to the Enlightenment of the middle ages." Well said. Thank you kindly for your comment and i hope that all is well.
http://8020vision.com/2012/04/22/earth-gets-a-police-escort/
In 1970 a barrel of oil was $2 to $4. In 1979 it was $30 a barrel. And we were still dependent on foreign oil.
Today, we can buy a portable solar generator that can power an entire home. Then pick it up, and take it camping. It even has a short wave radio. And a hand battery charger. It runs $1700.
I await a snow storm here in WNY, today, that will kill our pitted crops. Peaches, cheries and grapes for the 3rd time in 3 years. Disadters reign everywhere. Oil is over $100 a barrel.
It's been time to Hope for the Best, but be prepared for the very worst. If you have'nt already, do it now.
God Bless Us All.
And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all." Thank you kindly for your comment and i hope that all is well.
"The livestock sector emerges as one of the top contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency." UN Food and Agricultural Organization's report "Livestock's Long Shadow"
“If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains... the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.” Environmental Defense Fund
Why would someone choose to be vegan? To slow global warming for one! Here are two uplifting videos to help everyone understand why so many people are making this life affirming choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE and http://www.veganvideo.org