08 Oct 2018 - Chicko Brigante
Not until today did I know how much carbon dioxide goes up into the air every year. A table shown in the Washington post today says 40 billion tons. 40 billion tons! I can’t get my head around that but I have over the last few years began to wonder where everything is coming from but that’s slightly off topic.
40 billion tons, If someone told me a ton of man made carbon had gone up into the air I would have said, ‘Wow! That sounds like it might cause some damage’.
This is a big issue, big enough for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to basically say, as the Post headline put it, that, ‘the world has 10 years to prevent Climate Catastrophe’.
Ten years isn’t a lot, it will be here pretty fast and we have to start reducing these emissions now and getting them to zero ASAP if we want to survive. It doesn’t quite say that, but thats what it says. Link here!
No, the carbon isn’t the problem. The problem is that we don’t do anything to change it and no one seems to want to take proper responsibility for it.
Ok I can hear you saying how much you do care and how you don’t drive on weekends and you recycle but I’m sorry that’s not enough. Neither is there being one or two electric cars per town. And just simply agreeing that something needs to be done, is not enough!
It’s a start though. It’s a good start. The whole thing has been argued about for decades but maybe we’re getting somewhere. Also, I don’t just want to rant here. I want to offer my solution because quite frankly, it’s the only solution.
There is a problem with the solution though and it’s the same thing that pushed us so quickly into this mess in the first place, our addictions.
I’m not talking about Alcohol, Drugs and Coffee but they do play a part. I’m talking about oil and the things that have become possible because of it. Things we all take for granted nowadays, the main one being our cars. Our little freedom wagons that propel us to wherever we point them.
They don’t just get us places, they’re our personal space and they provide us with that little bit of solace when we need it. How could we give them up?
But still cars are not really the problem, it’s what we need in order to have cars… Money.
STOP!.
Okay, one moment, I know so far this sounds obvious but I’m just laying the ground for the argument for my solution. Also, before I go any further on this particular subject I’d just like to say I’m in no way debating about who are the evil ones in the world or about Iraq war conspiracies etc, I’m just stating basic facts of where we are today and why we’re here and what to do about it, hence my very basic and obvious statements so far. So please, bear with me.
Money is not a bad thing. It certainly has one very tidy solution to an actual problem. For example, a fisherman needs his bog plumbed in but the plumber doesn’t like fish. A frequent issue in the old days, although I don’t think flushing toilets were all that common then.
So is money the problem? No but like drugs it plays its part and this part has more impact when it comes to large ticket items such as cars and homes.
Often money for these items has to be borrowed from the banks and what gives the banks power to lend large amounts is a thriving economy and one of the main things keeping the economy thriving is oil.
Again though, it’s not oil that’s such a bad thing, it’s our over use and reliance on it. This in turn has become our addiction. The many products it produces and the way of life we have become accustomed to.
And it’s our way of life that fuels the economy and creates the high numbers that give the banks the power to lend.
Jobs are created to make, distribute and sell products. We need these products to get to our jobs and to get things done to earn money. We use the money to buy the products we need.
BUT these products create a lot of pollution. Many so called affordable products are false economy as they don’t last long and often end up on rubbish dumps within weeks.
So the real long term cost for us isn’t the interest on the debts owed to the banks. It’s bad health, toxic air, an unstable environment and a loss of nature. Health is directly impacted by toxic air, an unstable environment and the loss of nature.
We are literally dying to have nice things!
Oh, and killing everything else in the meantime and for what?
Sorry, I’m ranting again.
I’m not saying we can’t have nice things but there should be a higher standard of quality and maintainability to prevent the waste of valuable resources.
I have another way of looking at things and I don’t think we’ll need to change too much. It’s more of an adjustment. Although it will require us to give up on a now quite ancient idea. An idea that has been widely in place in Europe since the 1500s, before the boom of industry, Wealth creation.
It’s quite simple. Take something people need from somewhere or convert something people don’t need into something they might want and sell it at a profit. Own it, control it, own the rights and govern the law.
In many ways this has and hasn’t worked. It’s helped create jobs and opportunity and led to many discoveries but it’s also led to increased poverty, a polluted ravaged earth and an out of control system with no real end goal for humanity.
It really is quite a simple idea. Think of the Earth as a ship and we are the sailors. If some rough weather blew in or an enemy attacked it would be ‘All hands on Deck!’. That is the approach we must now take.
I’m not saying that most of the jobs we do are pointless as I can understand many of us have real passion for what we do but to just continue regardlessly will not fix this. We have to stop what we’re doing now and look at the problem face on.
This can no longer be a taboo subject. We must talk about it because the solution really is obvious and we all know it. We have younger generations relying on us to make the change and start moving in the right direction. We cannot let them down.
I don’t believe in Communism, Capitalism, Socialism or any other ism for that matter but I do believe that the large companies have made their money and large industrial firms should not just be regulated but instructed to follow the same overall path as everyone else. This is a must if we’re to get it right and use the remaining resources correctly.
I don’t think we should spend years voting and debating and squabbling and turning the whole thing into a Brexit horror show that costs millions on nothing: we all need to get on the same side, pick a direction and all muck in.
I don’t see oil and other fuels as a means to making money. I see them as valuable limited resources that we may require in order to save the Earth and keep the human race living far into the future.
But I say all of this knowing what we now know now. When we started drilling for oil it was to light the streets and for a small time after the introduction of electricity oil had no real use or value. But look at it now. Just over a hundred years later we cannot live without the stuff.
The truth is though we can live without many of the products we use today. In fact the main reason we go shopping or play with our phones or drink alcohol is because we’re all pretty lost and don’t know what else to do. There I’ve said it. It’s something I’ve recently come to terms with myself.
What to do instead? Lets save the Earth! We have the technology. We have the ingenuity. We have knowledge and if we don’t we can figure it out and we have each other. We can now communicate instantly all over the planet, so whats stopping us?
Frankly there is no way I will ever work for a pointless, wasteful organisation ever again. And neither should you!
Theres plenty of people who are ready for this change. Many are fed up with their jobs because they don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Many seem to have given up because they felt or were told they weren’t good enough: This is where drugs, alcohol and tobacco play their part.
With hope and a purpose the many disillusioned people of the world will finally feel like they are working towards something worthwhile. I really believe that the reason for anxiety, depression and addictions is a lack of purpose, hope and worth.
We should not only be working to reduce emissions but be building for the future. Building a world that can protect us from future catastrophes such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and so on.
Most of the work needed will involve working within our communities building flood defences, planting trees and sustainable food sources and making our homes more energy efficient. We will be quite literally working for ourselves, for our future.
In the end everything we do is for survival. We all need food, shelter, warmth and love.
Now really is the time. We have more knowledge than ever. We have the technology, we have the science and we have good old human will to survive and be the best.
For the first time in history we would be doing something together, as one nation, as one people.
This is what must happen and if you agree, you have to say, I’m in! And go tell everyone about it and keep telling them until the people who can really get this thing going see the shift in public opinion. Then governments will know they have to come together on this, that changes will have to be made and that it’s time to captain the ship into safer waters.
Let’s not just talk about it now and worry about it later. Lets make it happen!
This approach must be treated like the end of the second world war when everyone came together, on rations, to rebuild their towns and cities.
We need to kind of devolve but with the knowledge and technology we now have to do things better.
Civilisations made a big mistake in the past cutting down so many forests. How do you think they moved such heavy stones and built so many large ships? What about early war machines used to destroy small cities? This early behaviour turned beautiful fertile lands into deserts. Much of the Middle East was once a green fertile paradise.
Deforestation is often left out of climate change news and talk of toxic emissions but the lack of tress has a major impact on air cleanliness, soil fertility, causes of drought and rivers bursting their banks. So why is this?
I think kids these days need hope and purpose rather than leaving school with the same problems we had. If you weren’t educated enough for law, medicine or bright enough to go to university with at least some idea of what you wanted to do, life felt kind of vague after school. A bit, well you just gotta fill in the other jobs. I worked in a clothes shop for my first job.
Imagine instead you were going through school knowing that at the end you will have a role to play and have necessary things provided to you and that your job is important because just like Will Smith you are going to help save the world.
The thing I figured is that much of the wealth and products that create the wealth, that in turn fuel our economy, come from fossil fuel. Mostly oil. The money is then indirectly lent to people for their mortgages and cars via the banks so keeping people on the roads, polluting the air in order to pay off the debt. I’m sure it wasn’t conceived in that way but that’s now what we have.
So we are kind of held hostage to the economy and money. If we don’t pollute our way to work and for leisure we go behind on our payments and miss out on having fun. But the only way to break the chain and do what is truly right is to give up on the economy the way it is.
This would mean we have to scrap many jobs (Obviously emergency services would have to continue) and create new kinds of jobs that will contribute to serve one purpose; building a future proofed earth where nature and man coexist protecting each other, bringing balance, harmony and a stable environment.
Just doing this could lead to new developments far beyond our current imaginations. Much of the technology we now take for granted has come from journeys into the unknown: searching for new land, going to the moon, reaching the North Pole and many military expeditions.
The prophets were right. The world is going to end. People have done and will do bad things but we, us, now, could actually heed the warnings of imminent doom and do something unprecedented.
After all, a prophecy only comes true if you except it and then consciously work toward it’s actuality. And I hate to say thats what were currently doing.
End