When are we going to act on climate change?
Although understandably, we worry about economic austerity and Islamic extremism, the greatest threat to humankind is climate change. So, this week, I attended London’s City Lit college for a one-day course entitled “Climate Change: Past, Present And Future” run by Wendy Hartnell, formerly policy adviser at Department of Energy & Climate Change. Interestingly we met in the same lecture room as the one I had sat in the previous day for a course on “Henry V And The Battle Of Agincourt” but the history session had three times as many students as that on climate change. What does that tell us?
First, we examined some of the complexity of the Earth’s climate machine, looking at the role of the atmosphere (the Hadley, Ferrel, and Polar cells and the Coriolis effect), the oceans, sunlight, and greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane). We viewed graphs showing historical changes in climate based on knowledge from tree rings, corals, ice cores and historical records. Currently mean global surface temperature is 15 degrees C and the hope is that we can limit the increase to another 2 degrees C which would still be an increase of 13%.
Next, we looked at the evidence that global temperatures are rising and that this is being driven by human activity. The most convincing evidence is that in the five reports since 1990 from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Some 97% of climate change scientists believe than current climate change is caused by human activity. We are seeing a warming in the Arctic, retreating glaciers, a rise in sea levels, birds breeding earlier, autumn leaves falling earlier, and Japanese cherry trees flowering earlier. The evidence is conclusive.
Finally, we looked at efforts to combat the impacts of climate change and to reduce the rise in temperatures. A key event is the UN conference on climate change to be held in Paris In December 2015 when it is hoped that a new global agreement can be concluded. We looked at some of the actions which governments, corporations and individuals can take and the possible role of what is called geo-engineering (such as a giant reflector in space).
August 6th, 2015 at 12:03 am
That sounds like a very thorough Course. Has it left you feeling optimistic, or otherwise?
August 6th, 2015 at 11:12 am
You know me, Nadine. I’m always optimistic about the future of humankind. It’s just that it’s often hard to see the trends among all the day-to-day news.
I think that there is a growing political commitment to tackle climate change (see Obama’s recent statement) and even major corporations are showing understanding of the impact on their future profitability if we don’t act.
Perhaps above all, I feel that, in both small and large ways, new technologies can make a major contribution.
I hope I’m right – for Catrin’s sake.