Facing the Truth of Climate Change
Every sane person knows that man-made climate change is changing the planet. The discussions are focusing on the impact and timing of the change. Governments are slow to move on this issue, as it is yet not at the top of the electorate’s concerns, although it should be. The developed world has moved its manufacturing capacity to the developing world, that in turn has become a major contributor towards global warming, but lacks the resources to ameliorate its nefarious contribution.
What many of us have felt in our bones is now official. It is too late to reverse large changes in climate and sea level rises. In September this year the IPCC released its latest report that laments the irreversibility of climate change due to accumulation of heat in the world’s oceans.
On a more positive note, we have been witnessing an increase in public awareness, at least in the developed world, of the negative impact of climate change as demonstrated by increased use of the term Climate Emergency in public and political discourse in the UK.
There are two main strategies for engaging with climate change:
- Mitigation: reaching international agreements that seek to limit the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
- Adaptation: adapting human activity to the changing climate conditions
Most of the effort we are seeing is around Mitigation. The year when the UK will reach zero emissions has become a political point in the current UK election.
Reading the evidence, and examining the various initiatives around ameliorating the severity and impact of climate change, there is only one conclusion that is borne out:
Nothing we are going to do now, or in the near future, is likely to make any difference to the severity of climate change in our lifetime!
This is an extreme statement but seems to flow from the current evidence. This does not mean we should stop reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Following generations will benefit from any improvements we can effect, but for us, now, it is too late.
What does that mean for our climate change amelioration strategy? The balance of activities must shift towards adaptation from mitigation. The focus, going forward, at least in the next decade, should be on building resilience.
Resilience can be built on several levels: Global, national, local, and personal. All of these are significant and I will discuss building resilience in the various domains in separate articles. For now, I would like you to take home this message: Climate change is real, it is happening, and we are going to experience its imapct irrespective of the steps we take. Ask yourself what can you, as an individual, do to build resilience against changing climatic and social circumstances? and how can you help your local society and organisations to prepare themselves. The pace of change may be much quicker than anticipated by models as complex interacting systems can display positive feedback dynamics that accelerates the speed of change.
We are ultimately responsible for our individual level of preparedness for change, and the sooner we accept this responsibility, the more likely we are to increase our resilience in the face of a foretold change.