Global warming is very real
I didn’t understand how people could deny it before, but there’s certainly no room for discussion any more. No wiggle room to say it’s just natural, or that we’re coming out of an ice-age. 40 degree temperatures in the UK are something completely new, and should have us all up in arms and protesting that our government is still actively encouraging fossil fuel exploration, extraction and use.
It’s not just the UK though. The reticence of so many in charge to make the meaningful change the Earth desperately needs is appalling. Whether it’s through ignorance, apathy, or lobbying/bribes/cash for favours the progress we have made over the past few decades has been staggeringly glacial. A phrase that might not even be understood by the end of the century when there aren’t any left.
You only have to look back to the 80s and early 90s to see that real change can be made through cooperation and a commitment to right a wrong. I’m referring to the hole in the ozone layer, and the scientific evidence that CFCs were the cause. A protocol was drawn up (the Montreal protocol) and then the whole world almost immediately stopped using and producing them. There was a 99.7% reduction in CFC emissions and lo-and-behold the ozone layer stabilised!
The answers are shockingly simple, and have been there all along. Here are just two:
Invest heavily in renewables. Renewable energy isn’t a new concept at all. Did you know that Jimmy Carter had 32 solar panels installed on the White House roof in 1979! They could’ve easily added solar/photovoltaic panels to building regulations for all new builds across the world. Can you imagine 40 years of new buildings all with the ability to generate their own power? So simple and such a missed opportunity.
Provide outstanding public transport infrastructure. Individual car ownership has been a massive contributor to climate change and has definitely held back progress on developing better, more affordable, well thought out public transport networks. Just look at how efficient transport is as close to home as London. It’s clear that buses, trains, underground loops, and trams are cheap, easy ways to get from A to B. There is an argument to be made about rural vs urban access, and I’m not saying all cars should be banned. We have many industries that rely on the ability to speedily move from place to place directly such as care work and other emergency services. But if public transport in rural areas wasn’t so prohibitively expensive and given such a stigma by some corners of society imagine the country and world we could have!
Both of these aren’t outside the realm of possibility. Luxemburg’s public transport is completely free at point-of-use. A large city like Madrid has such an expansive network you can get from one side to the other in 20 minutes for very cheap.
Just look at the adoption of the push bike in Copenhagen or Amsterdam. They have totally flipped the focus of their infrastructure and people have greeted it with excitement and enthusiasm. We can see how good a bike-centric urban environment can be by looking at Cambridge or Oxford.
It doesn’t take much effort to look beyond what we’re putting up with now to see that there could be a better life for everyone with very little sacrifice or hardship, and it would in fact improve the lives of so many, whilst simultaneously improving the lives for future generations not having to cope and deal with the impacts of a 2-4 degree rise in temperature.
And the temperature is very much rising due to human interference. The escalation since the western industrial revolution is well documented. One representation of this data is the Warming Stripes. They are a very graphical way of showing the temperature differences year to year, and clearly show a rise in global average temperature that is both horrific and heart breaking as this could’ve been avoided if we’d listened more to scientists than CEOs.
These heatwaves are going to keep on coming, bringing with them more wildfires, more avoidable deaths from exacerbating health issues. The sea level will rise as the temperature heats up water molecules and they expand, driving people from their homes and places of work. We’re already seeing a deterioration in the wind and warmth movements of the Earth like the Gulf Stream which directly affects the conditions here in the UK.