Define Imagine: climate change

Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts

Apocalyptia?

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

The Sign of the Four

At the beginning of this year, the media began reporting on the phenomenon of mass animal deaths that were occuring almost simultaneously all over the world. Frightening to read, the articles and photos strongly resembled the tension building scenes from a typical Hollywood apocalyptic blockbuster - the scenes that occur right before the destruction of the planet unfolds on an epic scale.

In countries all around the world hundreds to thousands of dead birds fell out of their skies, for no obvious reason. Reports poured in daily of thousands to millions of dead fish washing up onto beaches in both hemispheres. And there was more to come - mysterious livestock deaths would occur in the hundreds and whales dead of starvation would wash ashore in waters far from their natural habitat. During the most bountiful season, inexplicably starving animals would attack humans as food and sharks would attack swimmers in unprecendented numbers. This was bad. Really bad. And we weren't sitting in a comfortable cinema chair with popcorn in one hand and a Coke in the other, this was happening for real.

Courage is knowing what not to fear ~ Plato

What does it take to stand in front of oncoming army tanks and halt their progress with nothing more than one's body and the desire to stop gross injustice? How does one stand against the System telling the ugly truth over and over in the unshakeable belief that one day their efforts will bring change for the better? What kind of person can resist society's "norms" and remain true to what they know is right even in the face of ridicule, exclusion and disdain? Every good thing that we enjoy in today's world has been brought to us by the determination and efforts of people such as these. In all the billions only a handful stand out, but that mere handful changed the way the entire world was shaped politically, geographically, culturally and civilly.

Australian firefighter gives water to a thirsty koala during their recent forest fires.

Photo Source

Compassion ~ a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

What would happen if every man, woman and child on earth was able to experience true compassion for just one day, at the same time? What a staggering thought. True compassion does not need to be an act of magnitude, it can be as small as suddenly seeing that one's fish aquarium is covered in algae and deciding there and then to immediately do something to improve the situation. Or one could stop thinking about their everyday woes and for the first time in weeks see that their plants are parched and cramped in tiny, old pots and quickly give them a drink, before finding new pots to plant them into. The ripple effect would see owners taking their dogs out to the forest or beach for a good, long walk, instead of just accepting that letting it out into a small yard twice a day is good enough.

The Real Fear Story...Apathy

"Be the change you want to see in the world"

Gandhi

The other day, while discussing how to make climate change issues more engaging for Paradigm's Bend's readers, a brilliant friend of mine sadly pointed out that the trouble with climate change isn't whether it is happening or not, it is that everyone is tired of being bludgeoned to death with fear stories wherever they turn. Over an extended period of time desensitisation occurs and not too long after, apathy follows. In a recent email exchange with an American collaborator, I learned that in the US while 30% accept climate change as a real issue, 30% do not accept climate change or see it as a hoax and another 30% don't even care. The other 10% must have been too apathetic to even answer the climate change survey. Forget about climate change deniers, it is apathy that is the real enemy of climate change.

"One thing must surely be obvious though: The problem is largely a Western one. It is the Western countries who are leading the way in CO2 emissions, and when non-Western countries have high CO2 emission rates themselves, it's usually because they are adopting Western habits. Since we, the West, have been a leading cause of the CO2 emissions problem, surely it is we who must step up and be the leaders in the solution." ~ David Bleja

There is an amazing page online called Breathingearth that uses reputable sources to show real-time data via an interactive world map that displays country by country population stats and CO2 emissions. A bird's-eye view that allows the viewer to drill down into each country to see their individual and per capita CO2 contributions. One can take as little or as much as they like from this piece, from simply checking what their own country's status is to comparing their output with other countries and discovering who the real greenies and carbon monsters are.

"Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change."

Jonathan Safran Foer ~ Author of Eating Animals

I remember the first time I saw a truck full of livestock heading for the slaughterhouse. I was a nine year old child, riding in the car with my parents on our way to visit relatives in Ontario, Canada. Due to the traffic congestion, our car rode alongside the trailer for several minutes. Those minutes were long enough for me to look into the eyes of the animals crammed in there like holocaust victims. I saw the terror in their eyes, I saw that they were unable to move even a centimeter, one of the calves caught my eye for more than ten seconds and in that ten seconds that animal let me know everything I didn't want to know. That animal was feeling its reality as hard as any human being ever could. I shudder as I write this, because somehow I think it felt it even more than we could. In the backseat, I began to cry. Up in the front seat, locked into their own world of oblivion, my parents heard me and asked me what was wrong. I told them to look at the trailer full of miserable creatures beside us, suffering in the subzero temperature, their terror radiating out of them like a neutron bomb.

Double Standards and Denial

Today, as I was researching for my latest article about oceans and their relationship to global warming, I was listening to a BBC radio interview and the interviewee mentioned that he often liked to pose this question to climate scientists and eco warriors alike whenever he met them. His question?

Why Should Global Warming = No More Cold Winters? Because. That's Why.

This week I discovered that apparently I am retarded and if that wasn't enough I also have severe mental problems. This according to someone whom I have never even met; who doesn't know I exist, but along with thousands of others I was still fair game for his armchair judgement. Who was this person? He is a blogger with a following of several hundred on Twitter who doesn't "believe" in man-made global warming (AGW). I won't link to his blog because I prefer not to drive traffic to a blogger who speaks purely from a personal bias that directly contradicts tested scientific evidence on the subject he wrote about - in this case the current cold winters being proof that global warming is a hoax (see link at bottom of post for scientific explanation of negative Arctic oscilliation and the weakened polar vortex). In comparison to other bloggers on the subject, he was relatively tame with his rant. Some are virulent in their hate speak. Some have the hallmarks of extremism. To these "believers" of anti climate change if you subscribe to the possibility of AGW then you are automatically judged in the most derogatory terms. Those of us who want to ask reasonable questions and look to the scientific community for answers are relegated to the realms of the simple; the unthinking; the gullible and the outright stupid. That's a lot of insults from people I haven't even had a chance to express my views to.

Irresponsible Reporting. The Damage. The Consequences.

"The thing about science is first of all it's after the way the universe really is and not what makes us feel good. And a lot of the competing doctrines are after what feels good and not what's known."

Carl Sagan

Today in Japan, there is a volcano experiencing one of its biggest explosions since it became active again after 52 years. Today there is an evacuation of the low lying parts of North Queensland and its off shore islands in advance of Cyclone Yasi, a category 4 cyclone that is due to hit what has already been designated as a disaster area tomorrow or the next day. Today the US National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Chicago. Yesterday 2 people died and 29,000 were evacuated because of floods in Johor, Malaysia. The media has not been short of fodder for articles concerning the heatwaves, floods, droughts and heavy snowfalls that have recently plagued mankind. So many things are happening all at once that it's likely not practical for all of it to be widely reported. This means only a percentage of what is happening in the world due Climate Change is being made common knowledge. There are things happening we will never know about. But even if those of us trawling the Internet for information don't know about it, the scientists do, and later on we'll realise why that's more important than most people realise. But first let's talk about responsible reporting.

Last night I couldn't sleep. I kept replaying in my mind the nine day endurance swim a polar bear and her cub attempted, due at least in part to climate change. I kept imagining the mother swimming on and on, through water as deep as 3400m for 232 hours straight. She never stopped, and was not carried by currents; rather she was continuously pushed away from her path and had to fight the current. No one knows when her cub died, but the scientists who reported the findings concur that the most reasonable explanation was that the cub likely died from exhaustion before the 687km swim was completed. Imagine the scenario. A lone polar bear swimming through an endless dark blue sea with her young cub following her, valiantly trying to keep up. Somewhere out there in that deep sea, where the ice used to be she must turn her head and watch her cub succumb to the depths and there is nothing she can do. To survive she must keep on swimming, hoping that the ice will appear on the horizon soon. Imagine her grief. Her baby is gone, her constant companion, lost to her. Don't believe it didn't hurt her. It did.

SRES. Something You Might Want To Know About

As I journey up the steep learning curve of Climate Change, using the tools of rationality, logic and scientific fact to guide me, I become more and more uncomfortable with my findings. Yesterday was a long day of research, hence the lack of posts online. I managed to get a few Tweets posted but mainly I was learning, sorting my thoughts and contemplating where I was going to go next with my upcoming blogs.

Before we start, allow me to review the modus operandi of Paradigm's Bend. As I research I wish to share what I learn with others, so long as it falls under the header of being useful, relevant and enlightening information, whether I do so by posting other people's articles or by writing my own posts which I have researched and tested with critical questioning. My constant view is that while the Internet and Media are both wonderful resources in and of themselves, they tend to come at a price. They grant vast knowledge and awareness, while at the same time with one or two misclicks, the promising path followed can rapidly confuse the seeker with poorly researched information that should be labelled as deceptive, misleading or even downright nonsense. This blog focusses on distilling balanced, straight forward information and posting the best and clearest information gleaned from the Internet, science journals and government papers.

Today's blog is a little like taking a step back. I want to have a post on PB that benchmarks Climate Change in a realistic and measurable way. In a way that impacts on humans personally. Something that can be referred back to in future posts. That is where SRES comes in. Until recently I hadn't heard about SRES, it's not discussed much in the media but it should be. In my humble opinion, this shouldn't be the fodder of only the policy makers, little kids should be taught this in school. It should be ingrained into our lives and made part of our cultural consciousness. Soon you will see why.

Fabulous article

Perfectly encapsulating the complexities of how difficult it is to pinpoint what is really happening to our climate even when things are changing very quickly. Also a very good review of the unbelieveable weather 2010 brought to the planet. Props to IHT for posting such balanced reporting of this subject.

Excerpt from Tospy-Turvy Weather Tied to Weaker Arctic 'Fence'

"Since satellites began tracking it in 1979, the ice on the Arctic Ocean’s surface in the bellwether month of September has declined by more than 30 percent. It is the most striking change in the terrain of the planet in recent decades, and a major question is whether it is starting to have an effect on broad weather patterns."

Read the full article from International Herald Tribune's Justin Gillis "Topsy-Turvy Weather Tied to Weaker Arctic ‘Fence’"

the beginning of the end

I want to be like Charlie Frost, the real hero from the movie 2012 who lived in a RV filled with computers, maps, newspaper articles, assorted low tech tracking equipment and whose fridge contained two basic items - beer and dill pickles. You know Charlie, he's the one who saw it all coming but nobody believed him since he looked and acted like a paranoid whack job. Yes, I want to be like him, only I'll be the female version. I will live in a remote setting on some high ground in nowhere, Sweden and I will watch the world carefully from my office, delving into the net using the skill of asking it the right questions, to get to the interesting answers (usually found in boring places like science journals). And I will eat pickles and talk to my cats. But you know why I think Charlie is the true hero? Because he had the balls to follow his instincts and ultimately was the one who saved the Jackson's life (and a few others too by mere dint of association to him). If Jackson hadn't run into Charlie, he wouldnt have known what he needed to know to get to safety. When the end came Charlie died in a rather spectacular way, but he went the way he wanted to go, with his mind and eyes wide open to the truth, there was no fear, shock, terror or surprise, just blissful acceptance of his fate, which he welcomed with open arms.

Define Imagine

Apocalyptia?

Courage

Compassion. All That's Needed to Change Our World.