The idea of a “global community” that we hear about in the media is just fancy talk. The truth is, it’s all about countries and companies looking out for their own interests. We couldn’t care less about the effects of CO2 and how it might harm people. Making profits is what really matters. Profits are also why solar energy can’t compete against the interests of the Aramcos.
It is dirt cheap and good for the environment, but the problem is that it doesn’t bring in much profit. The ice age is still melting; the less ice left, the faster it heats. We also need to focus on air quality and land restoration. We may have accelerated global warming, but it was accelerating itself anyway. The best we can do now is to consume less, restore more land, and change current mono-crop farming techniques for permaculture farming across the planet.
The problem is that there is little in the way of income in these fields of work. People are naturally competitive, so it is not easy to expect people to become competitive in what they can do to fix what they have damaged because the entire reason they damaged it was to profit in the first place. People like the idea of doing something to repair the world, but we tend to wait until after the problem has caused a disaster, and then we act, usually too late. Why do we have to wait until the event?
Are we not intelligent enough to try to average out the curve of cycles such as these? Even if we were, I highly doubt we could achieve what needs to be done to make a big difference. However, we should be trying harder. Personality: I don’t have much faith in the people to do what is needed to make such an effort. I discuss similar scenarios in public, and 95% of people are just not interested. We also need to consider the power of nationalism.
All countries need to make this effort in unison so other countries do not take advantage of those that slow their economies to help the situation. Seriously! Is this ever going to become a reality? This is not likely with current geopolitics and the way people behave. To minimize my impact, I am happy to earn between €5k and €10k a year.
Do you really think someone earning €500k a year is going to reduce their income to my level to contribute towards minimizing their impact? FFS… Apparently, they are happy to breathe in silver iodide every day, a form of particle pollution, in order to help make rain nowadays. The issue with rising global temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions is that it’s not merely a problem that can be addressed scientifically or technologically; it’s largely political and capitalistic as well. The big benefactors of the fossil fuel industry, private and governmental, may not see the incentive to switch up their practices and reduce their profits in the short term for long-term global benefits.
It’s classic short-term thinking vs. long-term thinking. Even with potentially resolvable technologies and infrastructure, it still requires a strong political will to put them into place, even if that means short-term losses in terms of profit for long-term investment. But the entire political structure is geared towards short-term thinking vs. long-term thinking in light of elections and reelection campaigns, so progress is slow at best.
What most climate models are only now starting to take into account is the process of climate change acceleration due to feedback loops. One example is fire and melting. It gets hotter. So you have more forest fires (CO2) and permafrost melt (methane). That release makes it hotter. So you have even more forest fires and permafrost melting. Which makes it even hotter. And so on. The process of climate change acceleration due to these feedback loops means it will not take as long to get to 3C as many believe right now.
It’s hard to understand how we can continue to grow the population by another 1-3 billion people, have the lifestyle that we’re used to in the West, and allow developing countries to continue developing. Something has got to give somewhere. We could have likely solved this with more solar panels if we had continued the path we tentatively started down in the 1970s, but at this point, it sure seems like we need to methodically reduce population, reduce our standard of living in the West, and migrate everything to renewables. I don’t see any of that happening to a degree that matters, and I hope I’m wrong.
People tend to only show concern when major events or personal circumstances affect them. As humans, we often prioritize our own interests and fail to extend the same level of care and concern to others. This raises the question: Why is it so hard to care for others? Perhaps it’s because there’s no monetary reward for doing so. However, if we want to make the world a better place, we need to start caring more. Though it may be challenging, it’s important to start taking action now. After all, if we don’t start now, when will we?