“We live in a strange world.
Where all the united science tells us that we are about 11 years away from setting off an irreversible chain reaction way beyond human control that will probably be the end of our civilization as we know it.
We live in a strange world where children must sacrifice their own education in order to protest against the destruction of their future.
Where the people who have contributed the least to this crisis are the ones who are going to be affected the most.
Where politicians say it’s too expensive to save the world, while spending trillions of euros subsidizing fossil fuels.
We live in a strange world where no one dares to look beyond our current political systems even though its clear that the answers we seek will not be found within the politics of today.
Where some people seem to be more concerned about the presence in school of some children than the future of humankind.
Where everyone can choose their own reality and buy their own truth.
Where our survival is depending on a small, rapidly disappearing carbon budget. And hardly anyone even knows it exists.
We live in a strange world.
Where we think we can buy or build our way out of a crisis that has been created by buying and building things.
Where a football game or a film gala gets more media attention than the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced.
Where celebrities, film and pop-stars who have stood up against all injustices will not stand up for our environment and for climate justice because that would inflict on their right to fly around the world visiting their favorite restaurants, beaches and yoga retreats.
Avoiding catastrophic climate breakdown is to do the seemingly impossible.
And that is what we have to do. But here is the truth: we can’t do it without you in the audience here tonight.
People see you celebrities as Gods. You influence billions of people. We need you.
You can use your voice to raise awareness about this global crisis.
You can help turn individuals into movements. You can help us wake up our leaders - and let them know that our house is on fire.
We live in a strange world.
But it’s the world that my generation has been handed. It’s the only world we’ve got.
We are now standing at a crossroads in history.
We are failing but we have not yet failed.
We can still fix this.
It’s up to us.”
~ Greta Thunberg - speech just given at Goldene Kamera in Berlin
#Climate
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On the last day of Google+, Brian Murphy commented:
Ah, the naiveté of youth! Young enough to think there is still time, that we can still put the genie back in the bottle, that hope can triumph over raw physics.
The Rubicon was crossed before she was even born: U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked (1989)
U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked
I said: Sure. I also thought the US could be stopped by taking to the streets when I was young. Now I’m old and bitter.
But I still think that when it comes to climate, small improvements will result in valuable delays. I don’t think it’s time for drunken revelry in the bunker as we face the *Untergang*, the big drowning.
1989, hah! I remember worrying about green issues back in school in the eighties and I must confess I grumble a lot when people wake up to the bitter facts, now. Where where these people when we needed green votes? Oh well. Those ships have sailed and there is no point dwelling on it.
– Alex Schroeder 2019-04-02 05:29 UTC
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Last time CO2 levels were this high, there were trees at the South Pole. The article points out that we found fossilized beech trees in Antarctica that grew there at CO₂ levels that we have right now. And water levels about 20m higher.
Last time CO2 levels were this high, there were trees at the South Pole
And if you think that we might as well stop worrying, then the article has you covered. If we continue pumping out CO₂ at these levels, it will get worse, like that time 100M years ago, when there were tropical forests in Antarctica and who knows what else further north.
Time to think about that border defence here in Switzerland when those unwashed masses arrive from German, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, and all the other lower lands to the north (since I live near the northern border of Switzerland.
– Alex Schroeder 2019-04-03 19:24 UTC
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We Can’t Do It Ourselves: “How to live a more sustainable life? By placing responsibility squarely on the individual, attention is deflected away from the many institutions involved in structuring possible courses of action.”
– Alex Schroeder 2019-06-08 00:59 UTC