The Climate Crisis and the Case for Hope

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Here’s a reckless prediction: a decade or so from now, when the climate revolution is fully underway and Miami Beach real estate prices are in free-fall due to constant flooding, and internal combustion engines are as dead as CDs, people will look back on the fall of 2019 as the turning point in the climate crisis. At the very least it will be remembered as the moment that it became clear that people were not going to give up their future on a habitable planet without a damn good fight.

It’s not easy to feel hopeful at this dark hour. The Amazon rainforest is burning, heat waves this summer have killed thousands of people around the world, the Midwest is still reeling from massive flooding, and the human suffering from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas is just beginning to be revealed. Meanwhile, President Trump doodles on hurricane maps and big oil is still investing millions in fossil-fuel infrastructure that will only further load the atmosphere with carbon and accelerate the devastating climate impacts. Climate scientists tell us that nations of the world need to cut carbon pollution in half by 2030 to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Yet in 2018, carbon emissions grew faster than any year since 2011.

On the other hand, consider this: Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, has become a media star for calling CEOs and politicians liars and thiefs who have stolen her future – and the future of millions of other voiceless people. Inspired in no small part by Thunberg, tens of thousands of people will participate in a global climate strike on September 20th to demand action. CNN just devoted seven hours of coverage to climate change. In the U.S., a majority of registered voters now say climate change is an “emergency.” The climate crisis is at the top of the agenda for every Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential campaign. And, of course, there’s the Green New Deal, which has emerged in the past year to become one of the hottest political topics of the moment.

To me, these are all signs that the climate fight is gaining momentum and becoming the driving political movement of our time. Of course, I thought the same thing back in 2015, after the gavel came down in Paris on the climate deal. Boy, Paris is turning out to be an empty gesture. According to Climate Action Tracker, only two countries in the world, Morocco and the Gambia, have policies in place that are compatible with the 1.5 C target set in Paris.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/climate-crisis-the-case-for-hope-884063/

[Mickju]

1. I see no reason for hope.

I’m willing to listen to anyone who feels otherwise.

[The_jackalope]

2. For every Greta Thunberg there are ten thousand

people who want the economy to improve, and see no reason why it cannot.

"I need a bigger car and a raise because my wife and I just had our third child. If there is an emergency of any sort, it's obviously Someone Else's Problem."

[Mountain Mule]

3. Alas, I can only feel pessimistic

With CO2 levels at 415 ppm and steadily rising, we are already looking at a global temperature increase of 2 degrees C, and that is very dire news for our planet. I don't think we are going to be able to turn this one around in time to avoid mass suffering. I pity our grandchildren and I really hope I'm wrong but I don't think I am.

[The_jackalope]

4. Given that we are where we are now, it's been "too late" for 200 years.

We can still have hope, so long as it's personal hope about personal things. Planetary, ecological hope is out of the picture.

[mountain grammy]

5. I see hope in my granddaughters' faces..

but I have little. If America is dumb enough to accept trump, and the rest of humanity seems bent on destruction, I just can't think about the future.

[Boomer]

6. Don't blink, you'll miss it

Oh wait, was that hope that just whizzed by?

I don't see any rational support for a hopeful outcome. It's not enough to have momentum when you're running out of time. We don't have a century to painlessly transition from a carbon-based energy economy to something else we can't even envision yet. We need meaningful progress not just token good-faith efforts.

If you need a 5000-ft long runway for take-off, it doesn't matter that you have proudly built 3000ft of it when the engine starts. Being optimistic about that 3000ft stretch you completed is naïve at best. That plane is STILL going to crash.

[progree]

7. Only 37% think major sacrifices are needed (vs. 63% think only minor or not much are needed)

The Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post Climate Change Survey, 9/16/19
https://www.kff.org/report-section/the-kaiser-family-foundation-washington-post-climate-change-survey-main-findings-9349/

Few U.S. adults are willing to make personal sacrifices in the form of higher gas or electricity taxes in order to address climate change.

Fewer than four in ten adults (37%) think that reducing the negative effects of global warming and climate change will require major sacrifices from ordinary Americans, while a plurality (48%) think it will require minor sacrifices and 14% say it won’t require much sacrifice at all.

Majorities are willing to support raising taxes on wealthy households (68%) and on companies that burn fossil fuels, even if it may lead to increased electricity and transportation prices (60%), as ways to pay for policies aimed at reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

But when it comes to taxes that are likely to hit consumers’ pocketbooks, support is much lower. About half (51%) oppose a $2 monthly tax on U.S. residential electric bills, and seven in ten (71%) are opposed to such a tax at the $10 a month level. Similarly, majorities oppose increasing the federal gasoline tax by 10 cents or 25 cents per gallon (64% and 74%, respectively). There are partisan divisions, but even majorities of Democrats oppose a $10 monthly electricity tax (60%) and a 25-cent per gallon gasoline tax (63%).