Originally published at http://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/22/its-not-too-late-reverse-course-climate-crisis
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It might not be too late in a scientific sense, but our problem has never been scientific. It has always been political. As long as people keep believing the narratives spun by the modern day aristocrats and their sycophants in the think-tank media complex, they will continue to lead us to destruction.
There is not even the slightest glimmer of hope on this front. So, yes, it is too late.
The world will be transformed into a far less survivable one within a handful of generations, unless something comes along to take us out so we can’t do anymore damage.
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Move from a Power and Possessions economy to a Use and Access economy.
End Individual ownership of products we use not very often, we could share so much just choose to cooperate this would bring the price of expensive items down as people share the cost and usage.
This means less to landfill and the products would be made to a higher spec thus lasting longer.
Of course this model will have to be chosen.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
People will copy what works but we have to go first.
Share and share alike.
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I wonder when/if there will be scientists and journalists that will come out and say it’s too late to reverse course.
I suppose that is not allowed.
Thinking about Rachel Carson today and the hell she went through to fight for nonhuman life on this planet so many decades ago.
Thinking about the tragedy of her death which potentially could have been prevented if she knew the truth about the level of her illness when she was first diagnosed and had surgery. Doctors did not give her all the information on the severity of her cancer at a time she could have taken more action.
By the time she learned the truth it was too late.
And her cancer could have been (most likely was) caused by some of the toxins, herbicides, pesticides that she fought so hard to get banned.
I encourage anyone who has not read Linda Lear’s biography—Rachel Carson Nature’s Witness — to do so.
To try to get people’s attention on the danger of chemicals she quoted Albert Schweitzer who said in 1956:
"Modern man no longer knows how to foresee or to forestall. He will end up by destroying the earth from which he and other living creatures draw their food"
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I agree. There’s just too many people on this planet who don’t care and aren’t willing to do the smallest thing - like using re-usable shopping bags instead of plastic shopping bags - to have any hope for the long term future of this planet. What really needs to happen if we were to get serious about saving the planet (and it’s many non-human inhabitants) would for people to embrace some sort of human population control, and to do away with animal agriculture. Just reducing or eliminating fossil fuel consumption (which I doubt is even possible because our energy needs are so great) isn’t going to be enough.
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We need to rediscover something else to live for, to put beside the materiality of industrial life. Else this ‘pedal to the medal’ material acquisition will certainly kill us.
I just popped in to see if there was ANYONE who had NOT bought deeply into the despair that Ms. Lappe mentions in her second paragraph. I was going to count myself as no. 2 (out of six), but apparently one that I had read as neutral does hold out some hope.
Three “hopes” out of six is probably a new record here on Common Nightmares. So I would like to make a request of you people who insist that we are all doomed no matter what we do: If you aren’t up to stopping polluting our air with your exhalations, how about stopping cluttering up the forum with your cynicism instead of trying to convince us and others that we are doomed, so those of us who still see a narrow path through the bottleneck can do our work without distraction? You don’t even have to thank us (not that you would).
Apparently you don’t see that we think you are even sillier than you think we are. And yes I am quite aware of the science and fairly well read in those disciplines.