Climate Change by the Elements: Saving Ourselves! [Live Recording]

Climate change is no longer a question. It hasn’t been a question for over a decade. Truth be told, Humans have been writing about climate change since the year 1611. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was convened by the United Nations for assessing the science related to climate change.

The IPCC prepares comprehensive Assessment Reports about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place.
For the last six years the IPCC produced an Assessment Report showcasing the results of the analysis of thousands of scientists from around the world. You can find the latest report at: https://www.ipcc.ch/

OUR CHOICES PERPETUATED CLIMATE CHANGE

Even before we began to suspect climate change was a reality, we had already come up against the challenges using fossil fuels and their disastrous side effects in the early 1800 as coal fired smokestacks blacked the skies of London leaving soot on everything. London had long been affected by air pollution since the 13th century. There would even be a book written on the subject Fumifugium, the first such publication on pollution in 1661. Pollution in London was considered the price of doing business and would remain so until the early 1950s.
However, a weather inversion trapped a cloud of severe air pollution over the city of London in December 1952. This event as so catastrophic it would be called the Great Smog of London or the Great Smog of 1952. Lasting four days the smog reduced visibility to nearly zero and penetrated building, poisoning citizens and in those four days 4,000 people die. Another 100,000 people were made ill due to the density of the pollution. It is estimated another 10,000 to 12,000 others would die from this.

WE HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN OUR CHOICES WERE POTENTIALLY RUINOUS

Whenever you hear someone refute the truth of climate change you are hearing the power of money over reasoning. You are hearing the capacity of the wealthiest members of society controlling the narrative for an event which they have managed to prevent humanity from addressing for over 40 years.

Ironically, the first automobiles ever created were made in 1890. A chemist, William Morrison, who lived in Des Moines, Iowa, created his six-passenger vehicle which was capable of a top speed of 14 miles per hour. The device was little more than an electrified wagon, but it helped spark interest in electric vehicles.

At the turn of the 20th century, horses were the primary means of getting around but as Americans became more prosperous, newly invented motorized vehicles intrigued them and they came in a variety of choices including steam, gasoline or electrical versions.

Each came with benefits and disadvantages and as their designs were refined, some of those design flaws fell away supported by a need for ease (and potential profit) which eventually lead to the existence of gasoline powered vehicles as the preferred technology.
Between the forces of monopoly, the power of the combustion engine continuing to grow faster and being made easier to implement, lead to the automobile engine which powers our vehicles today.

One of the greatest producers of climate change gases come from the automobiles we ultimately chose. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. GHG emissions.

WAYS WE CAN SAVE OURSELVES

The first step to dealing with climate change is to recognize it. Without the ability to prove what is happening, and how to quantify the problem, we have no chance of making meaningful changes against it.

Fortunately the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has consistently showcased the challenges of dealing with climate change, the effects on the environment, the damage to our planetary ecosystem, the destruction of biomes and planetary diversity and the potential of both economic loss and societal collapse as the ecosystem we rely on becomes less stable and more problematic.

• We need more news. Better news. More relatable science.
• We need more scientific literacy in the general public.
• We need more scientific literacy in our leadership.

The second step is to acknowledge the failure to deal with climate change is not a scientific problem, it is a political one.
The science is clear, but the political will to change anything has to happen in our government. As the nature of government, its process, its development, and subsequent reliance on the economic manipulations of powerful corporations, we remain unable to address the problem because the greatest creators of climate disruption and pollution are the most powerful lobbyists in our nation’s capital.
Such powerful corporations have become responsible for putting politicians into office, politicians sympathetic to their need to continue to remain profitable while ignoring the environmental issues those corporations are causing on the environment. As long as money which cannot be traced remains part of the voting process, we will remain trapped by corporations who are unwilling to risk their profits, even for the environment which allows them to be rich in the first place.

• We need structured conversation and plans toward reducing greenhouse gases.
• A planned reduction of greenhouse gases by reducing the largest sources of greenhouse gases first.
• We need more ways of analysing how corporations are contributing to the problem of climate disaster and pollution.
• We need more economic incentives to develop new technologies which can reduce greenhouse gases.

The third step is to get powerful corporations (and the most developed world governments who are also some of the largest polluters on the planet) to acknowledge their part in our failure to address climate change.
We have to stop allowing politicians who are unwilling to recognize the problem, or who will actively gaslight their constituents, to stay in power. The lack of economic development and government controlled efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and to address the current climate challenges from heatwaves to the devastation of the oceans will result in millions of people being displaced, starving, experiencing famine, forced into climate migration and economic disability as our ecosystems collapse.

• We need to develop policies which address the reduction of our worldwide fossil fuel reliance.
• We need to consider alternative energies including nuclear power which as worked for military nuclear vessels for decades.
• We need to incentivize science for generating new energy and expanding our ability to store energy for on-demand use when renewables are unavailable.

A BRIEF LIST OF GREENHOUSE GASES

Water vapor: The most abundant greenhouse gas, but importantly, it acts as a feedback to the climate. Water vapor increases as the Earth’s atmosphere warms, but so does the possibility of clouds and precipitation, making these some of the most important feedback mechanisms to the greenhouse effect.

Carbon dioxide (CO2): A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by 48% since the Industrial Revolution began. This is the most important long-lived “forcing” of climate change.

Methane: A hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human activities, including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with domestic livestock. On a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but also one which is much less abundant in the atmosphere.

Nitrous oxide: A powerful greenhouse gas produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the use of commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and biomass burning.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): Synthetic compounds entirely of industrial origin used in a number of applications, but now largely regulated in production and release to the atmosphere by international agreement for their ability to contribute to destruction of the ozone layer.

***

Come to Climate Change by the Elements with your hosts Thaddeus Howze and Carol Bluestein at 5:00 PM PDT – 8:00 PM EDT.

Dial-in number: 1-701-801-1220
Access code: 934-317-242 (then press #)

You can also reach the show via your computer at:
https://www.startmeeting.com/wall/934317242

Permalink: https://fb.me/e/1rfSf4zdW

—

This post was previously published on Facebook.com.

***

You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project

Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often

Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It

The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex

..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything

—

Photo credit: iStock