Friday September 20 is the day for the world-wide Climate Strike, an attempt by millions of people to bring about real action by governments and corporations against the looming climate catastrophe.
Greenpeace has an informative page: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/top-3-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-climate-strike-on-20-september/
This is one way to join in: globalclimatestrike.net/#join
And https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/us-climate-strikes shows a map of the USA that you can enlarge(a “+” sign) to click on a city and find out exactly where and when the participants will meet.
The strike was inspired by the Friday climate strikes of school children that started in February. And they were inspired by the lone strike, starting in August 2018, of the Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg – a refreshingly modest leader.
We hear more than we want to hear about the Amazon (forests roaring to heaven), the Arctic (feedback loop of ice replaced by open water that absorbs heat faster), Siberia and Canada (permafrost melting and sending up plumes of methane), Pacific island nations (submerging)… Not so much about Tibet, the Earth’s “third pole.”
The climate to which Tibetan culture adapted is melting away.
My universalworkshop.com/climate started in April 2014 as my self-education on global warming, which I soon came to call global “heating.” It still serves fairly well for a “primer” on the basic science, and exposure of some of the denial propaganda spread by vested interests, though it is badly in need of months of updating work. Scientific reports on the acceleration of climate change seem to accumulate every day.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Guy, I have enjoyed and benefited from your writings since I first came across the Thousand-yard model or Earth a peppercorn, and astronomical calendars, and other related resources including this blog. However I must disagree with you about the need to preserve the Earth. I don’t believe man will destroy this planet, nor does he have the capability to save it. I say this because the Bible makes it clear that God cursed the Earth, which God said was very good when he initially created it, but is now no longer perfectly good because of man’s sin against Him. He destroyed the Earth by water in judgment. Billions of dead things fossilized and buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the Earth is the proof of the reality of a global flood. See the opening 3 chapters of Genesis, Genesis 6-9. God will once again destroy the Earth in judgment against mankind’s sin sometime in the future, perhaps the near future, not by water this time, but by fire. See 2nd Peter 3. The Earth is not a permanent planet. However, it is made for mankind to use to benefit Humanity and for mankind to subdue and Rule over. Many good things have come out of man’s use of both renewable and nonrenewable resources God has placed on this planet. Many cultures do not benefit from resources that they have at their disposal because of false beliefs about nature. Those cultures continue to suffer from diseases that we know can be overcome by technology and Medicine brought about by wise use of resources. In conclusion, the Bible is clear that man will not destroy the Earth, but God will, when he chooses to do so. See the Book of Revelation at the end of the Bible, chapter 6 through 19 and particularly chapters 20-22. The entire universe will melt with fervent Heat, probably when God breaks the nuclear forces that keep everything together. The good news is that he will make a new Heaven and a new Earth that will not be subject to Decay or sin, but will remain forever perfect, and God will dwell with men on the Earth. Knowing these things, what manner of Life ought we to live as we wait for the consummation of all things? First, humble ourselves before God the Creator and repent of our sin. Then trust God and his promises, and God promises we will stand before him one day blameless because of the love poured out for us by God and his son oh, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Stephen. You and I differ in choosing whether to trust to revelation or evidence.
I am certainly grateful for some of the products of religious culture – such “The Fire Next Time”, a wonderful piece of gospel harmonic singing that I once heard at the Wolftrap in Vienna, Virginia. I afterwards used to listen to it over and over on a cassette recording, wish I still had that.
Thanks very much Guy for putting out the word about the climate strike, and sharing info about how the global climate catastrophe is affecting Tibet. I had not heard about Tibet’s changing climate, but it totally makes sense. In California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, many glaciers that have existed throughout our admittedly brief recorded history have disappeared. More of our winter precipitation is falling as rain and less as snow, and we are experiencing increasingly extreme swings between drought and floods.
I’m taking Friday off from work to participate in the climate strike here in San Francisco. I’ve given up arguing with perversely irrational climate change deniers. I’m focused on getting our elected officials and corporate leaders to take urgent action to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels, protect those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and create a sustainable future for all of us.
We all need to make changes in how we live, but we are not going to solve climate change through individual consumer choices. The most important thing any individual can do to address climate change is to stop thinking and acting purely as an individual consumer and get involved politically. Visiting 350.org and signing up for their email list is a great way to get involved.
There are resolutions in the US House of Representatives and Senate calling for a Green New Deal. While there is little immediate prospect that this initiative will become law, it is exactly what we need to address both climate change and economic inequality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal
Excellent summary, and links.
(It was Anthony who by asking me “Are you going to join the Climate Strike?” reminded me of it, otherwise I wouldn’t have written a post.)
Yes, the most important for individuals is to help persuade politicians and corporations toward large-scale action – because a change of lifestyle by an individual is of microscopic effect. However, making at least some of those changes gives us safer moral standing for preaching to the politicians.
We all need to do everything we can as individuals. But because we’ve been socialized to think of ourselves solely as consumers in a free market, it’s easy to stay in that consumer mindset and to fail to recognize and use our collective political power. This can be demoralizing as well as dangerous for the planet. I have friends who are deeply concerned about the state of our biosphere. They eat vegan diets and feel guilty about using plastic toothbrushes, but they have never called their elected representatives to urge them to vote for or against a particular bill.
A personal example: A few months ago I gave up my car.* I didn’t get another car. I live in a city and mostly get around by public transit, bicycling, and walking. I don’t have off-street parking, and owning a car in the city is a hassle and expense that I can live without. I joined a car-share service for the one or two times a month when I need a car. I feel good about this decision, but my virtuous self-regard doesn’t matter much if our auto emission regulations, gasoline taxes, and banking system are structured in such a way that the auto companies can keep making tons more money manufacturing and selling huge pick-up trucks and SUV’s to individual consumers, rather than building the alternative transportation systems we will need to survive and thrive in a post-fossil-fuel economy.
* Giving up the car was primarily a matter of self-interest. During last winter’s heavy rains, my very old Honda Civic, which had been parked outdoors for decades, finally completely rusted out. After each rainstorm there would be a puddle on the floor of the back seat. I couldn’t justify holding on to it any longer, so I drove it to a junkyard and got 1000 USD from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to take it off the road.
I got only GBP 70 for scrap when my last car failed its inspection severl years ago!
The Air Quality Management District will give you a thousand dollars for any old car that is registered in the district with a current smog check certificate. They want to get the old cars off the roads because, on average, they pollute more than newer cars. My Civic always passed the smog test with very good numbers, and it got great gas mileage. I put a new catalytic converter on it three years ago. You’ll get something to scrap a car that doesn’t pass the smog test, but I’m not sure how much.
The real question I suppose is, if we all held our breath until we died, would the production of CO2 and CH4 be substantially lower during decomposition than during living? All the really serious strikers could give it a try and we could find out scientifically if it would work? Perhaps if all 7 billion of us died at once, it would overload the carbon cycle?
Thanks for your attempt at reductio
n ad absurdum, which I’m afraid doesn’t work. By mass, of the world’s mammals humans are 36 percent, and 60 percent are domestic mammals; 70 percent of birds are domestic fowl. (http://www.universalworkshop.com/2018/05/23/on-and-in-extinction/) If all these died about simultaneously, there would be for a month or so a spike in emission of methane and carbon dioxide. From then on, the rise in atmospheric amounts of those gases would be slowed by the amount due to the metabolism of those animals and by human transport and industry, but would continue because of large climatic processes we have started, including many feedback loops or “vicious cycles”. The natural world would still deteriorate. What is needed is for us to stay alive and do what is in our power to stop and reverse those proce3sses. Someone may correct me on this science.