Alf’s Concern and Man’s blah blah…

Gordon “Alf” Shumway aptly said, “You guys are really doing a number on this planet“. More on that on Season 4 / Episode 21 - Stayin Alive

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. So, why are we indifferent to our future. We love to go to the beach, look out the windows to see the blue sky, hear the birds sing, eat good food, play in the snow or enjoy the summer sun.

But we are not actively seeking to preserve our experiences for the next generation. We know our planet is under threat from climate change. Our planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years.

When society encounters a problem of  great magnitude, but slow-growing, we ignore it. We remain indifferent to the problem even if it could mean the destruction of life as we know it. No exaggeration intended. But our ignoring of the obvious cannot prevent the inevitable.

Eventually that crisis will deteriorate so much that it will  become unignorable, and by that time it will be too late.

The year 2020 has just concluded.  It was an unprecedented year by all accounts considering the pandemic, elections, wars and protests that took place. Some go as far as to say that ,“The year 2020 will be remembered as a turnaround point in human history.” Yet I would disagree, in some ways our society has not changed at all as our mentality remains the same. 

By the late 1970s Americans scientists had confirmed that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer which would lead to an increase in UV radiation,  and yet it took over two decades before the U.S ended CFC production. The first reaction was denial, then debate and then stalling by manufacturers before action was finally taken. What’s more alarming is that it is considered a fast response.  By then there was a large hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. We may have managed to mitigate that damage in time, but we might be too late this time. 

2020 marks the end of a decade of extreme climate: record-breaking high and low temperatures, destructive  hurricanes, rampaging wildfires in dry forests, droughts.

Yet, it is predicted global energy use is to grow by 50% and fossil fuel emissions by 25% in the next three decades. And we know fossil fuels are destroying our environment. It seems that we are so committed to current growth that we are ignoring our future in favor of a more convenient path. 

The fossil fuel industry is supported by billions of dollars in government subsidies. Single car commuting remains the norm. Long distance vacation travel grows and so does the demand for meat in our diet - meat products that produce a carbon footprint 20 times larger than that of vegetables..

The Amazon Rainforest is slowly getting destroyed, not to mention the Australian bushfires and the California wildfires. The U.S alone produced 38 million tons of plastic waste and yet plastic bottle production is poised to grow from 485 billion in 2016 to 583.3 billion in 2021. 

Statistically, the U.S. bears the greatest responsibility for climate change emitting 397 billion tons of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions, far more than China at 214 billion tons. and 16.5 tons per capita.

However, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease its participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, and begin negotiations to re-enter the agreement "on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers."  It appears as if President Trump played the blame game with world leaders when deciding the future of our planet and pushed this crisis onto the shoulders of the next generation, prioritizing short term economic gain; something we cannot afford to do as we will all bear the brunt of climate change. 

We are indifferent to the climate catastrophe that humanity has created. I will inherit this climate catastrophe along with my entire generation, but we are not proactively trying to solve it while we still have the time. We need to take action now while we retain the opportunity to salvage our environment, our Planet and before we become our own worst enemies.