Is it my imagination, or has the climate change conversation died away since Greta Thunberg sailed away?
Everybody was full of bright ideas for helping to reduce carbon emissions, but there’s not much news of actual implementation.
There are, as always, industrial corporations who would prefer to spend their money on entrenching the status quo, rather than on reducing carbon emissions.
But there seemed to be a gathering consensus that change was urgently needed. Well, didn’t there?
Just recently, the World Meteorological Organization alerted us to the latest figures for Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere.
At 407.8 parts per million, carbon dioxide (CO2) is at its highest concentration in three million years, which suggests that our current progress on cutting carbon emissions falls dangerously short of what is needed. We’re really good at talking about our carbon footprint, but less so at doing what is necessary.
We are still in love with our internal combustion engine — the freedom and convenience of being able to travel quickly to wherever we want to be, and the ease of moving goods from supplier to consumer. I’m fairly sure that for many of us, giving up that mobility is just too much to ask.
But is it worth the end of our species? We’ll see, eh?
On the bright side, those young millennials, bless their hearts, are opting for public transit, investing in bikes or good strong walking shoes rather than cars, and trying to find a sustainable future for themselves (and their children, if they feel optimistic enough to reproduce!)
Electric cars are coming to the market, more every year, and younger people who really need to travel are buying them.
We are still in love with our internal combustion engine — the freedom and convenience of being able to travel quickly to wherever we want to be, and the ease of moving goods from supplier to consumer. I’m fairly sure that for many of us, giving up that mobility is just too much to ask.
I don’t know how likely it is that the prices of electric vehicles will come within the financial means of young people who would prefer to drive one, but corporations are not in the business of misinterpreting market forces, so it may happen.
How quickly we can reach our carbon footprint goals is uncertain, depending on so many variables. Quite a lot of those variables reside in the human mind and in the human heart, and are therefore virtually unknowable.
I hate to have to fall back on the power of prayer, but if that’s all that’s left, then . . . .
Ed Healy,
Marystown
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