Citizen cooperation urgent re climate change, humanitarian crises

It was more than a decade ago, when Al Gore sounded the alarm on climate change. Global warming may have been a misnomer to some, but scientists declared then that if the nations of the world did not act in reducing carbon emissions, there would come a time when there would be no turning back, and environmental disasters would create widespread humanitarian crises. The urgency for doing something to reverse the impact of climate change, however, is undermined by politics, resulting in continuing inertia in responding to what scientists now tell us can no longer be ignored.



What Al Gore labeled “An Inconvenient Truth” is far from just inconvenient, scientists remind us. It is a truth that requires action and actually might be better termed “ugly” more than inconvenient.



The United Nations released a report on global warming a few days ago with the details that are another reminder of the grave consequences of doing nothing about the environment right now. Scientists say,“The evidence is overwhelming: Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising. Temperatures are going up. Springs are arriving earlier. Ice sheets are melting. Sea level is rising. The patterns of rainfall and drought are changing. Heat waves are getting worse, as is extreme precipitation. The oceans are acidifying.” 



The dilemmas in reducing carbon emissions involve the need to maintain a growing world population which requires energy sources. It takes more energy to plant food as the numbers of people to feed increase. Transportation needed to take goods from one place to another means additional fuel. Many human needs require energy sources, these needs coming at a time when possible options either take too much time and resources or would cause environmental problems as well.



While conservatives scoffed about climate change, and it became fashionable to make fun of Al Gore rather than focusing on the urgency of agreements that might have reduced pollution levels sufficiently to make a difference. Despite the warnings of scientists, people maintained it was either God's will for the earth to be destroyed or if climate change was occurring it this was simply part of an ongoing pattern that has been going on for thousands of years.



The argument against the scientists' predictions was the accusation they had been based solely on financial gain for themselves and their research. Politicians countered claims of man-made climate change with the opinions of scientists who disagreed with their peers. These disagreements helped to convince some people and confuse others. The man in the middle was immobilized by the divisions, so the tacit decision left was to go with the most emotionally rewarding notion in the short run, that man's activities could effect little change on what was foreordained by God or the ordinary course of climate changes that had occurred since earth's creation.



The apathy and ignorance, and the lack of willingness of politicians to take responsibility means the inevitable consequences of environmental disasters scientists remind us will create humanitarian havoc in the days and years to come. They tell us that the environmental upheavals will take their course, and that we have not seen the worst. But this declaration of inevitability simply cements the apathy, for if there is nothing man can do, the best thing might be to protect oneself as much as possible financially and to enjoy the moments now. That too is no good answer.



The blame has not been shouldered responsibly in ways that create action, although there is enough blame proverbially to be passed around. While progressives point to environmental challenges that must be met by changes, few agree on what they need to be, outside of the reduction of pollution levels that contribute the climate change. Without the knowledge, and acceptance, of individual responsibility; the problems may not be solved simply at the top.



While the news media reports, and the governments wrangle, the scientists and the people in the middle hold the key not to finger pointing blame but to future practice that will involve every citizen who wants to stay alive and who wants the generations to come to have a peaceful place to live. It is a shared responsibility, shared by folks of all political persuasions and religious beliefs.



Yet while the Democrats recently spent an evening in a talkathon on what to do about climate change, Fox News continued its denials in the same pattern as has occurred in more than a decade. With Fox the more popular channel, it is likely convincing the masses will be difficult to do. And when politicians offer laws and orders, the inability to accept the problem of climate change will likely result in continued inertia and the march to environmental chaos. For it is not a political problem but made one by those whose vested interests in the status quo outweigh the needs of the people most likely to be hurt in the humanitarian crises that scientists tell us will occur as a result of doing either nothing or not enough.