I SEE that the great, the good and the greedy (the three Gs) are going to have a conference in Copenhagen that will save the world from climatic disaster. This raises some questions in my mind.
How do they know what they need to do, on what scale and in what time to avoid climatic disaster for mankind, and will it work? Do we need to do anything? And if what we do is not going to work, why bother?
Does the correction and prevention of global warming not need global cooling? If it does, how do we achieve it? If the present level of CO in the atmosphere (presently 382ppm and rising as never before) affects global warming, what level does it need to be at to induce and maintain global cooling long enough to restore the climatic balance?
What percentage reduction in CO emissions would be needed and for how long to bring the level of atmospheric CO down as required?
If the conference agrees a cut in emissions below that level, will that not merely delay the point in time where other natural occurrences, such as the release of oceanic methane, will take place and global warming will proceed beyond man’s control?
Some argue global warming is not taking place and lower sunspot activity is offsetting any warming there has been. Is this so? Over what period of time do world temperatures have to be taken into account to say global warming is not occurring or has stopped?
If warming has stopped, does that mean cooling has started and temperatures will continue to fall, meaning that probably we do not need to do anything, or will they just stay as they are and corrective action will be needed to prevent and reverse polar ice melt?
Do we really know what is happening and what is going to happen, or are we just being told what some powerful people, such as the three Gs, think is happening?
Is it not time we used the three Fs – first find the facts – instead of the three Gs? If the three Gs decide what needs to be attained in the way of cooling down the climate, they then have to decide what we need to do to achieve that.
How do the three Gs decide what needs to be done if they don’t really know what is needed? How do they persuade people worldwide to do what they think is needed? What hope is there that any changes in lifestyle or standard of living required can be achieved in the timescale required? How long is the timescale we have? Is it already too late?
What happens if, despite all we achieve, global warming continues? What happens if natural occurrences take place that put global warming out of our control? How will society respond?
We need factual answers to these questions as long as they are just questions and not facts and we can still choose, on an informed basis, which kind of trouble we prefer.
Unfortunately, finding the facts is not always easy and sticking to them even less so. There are facts and opinions. It is not always clear into which category statements being made in discussions on climate change fit.
We do not always have sufficiently long or detailed records of the factors that affect climate change. The relative importance of any one factor can change as it interacts with others and new discoveries are made. As time passes, the truth changes. Polarisation of inadequately-researched and vindicated beliefs leads to the process becoming quasi-religious, with points of view being put forward with evangelical zeal and facts being used or dismissed according to how well they fit.
It is fear, not love, that makes the world go round. Maybe we are not yet frightened enough of the future to do what could be necessary. The danger is that, by delaying doing anything meaningful, what needs to be done becomes greater and by time useless. We may have to recognise that the world of humanity and society has rights, just as individuals do, and that the needs of society may need priority.
Do we have the required degree of altruism?
We have come through several revolutions – agricultural, industrial, social and now informational. If a climatic disaster is to be avoided, and it has started already, we will need a worldwide personal and moral revolution.
As individuals, we will need to recognise we are part of a whole, without which we are nothing. That will be the final and most testing challenge and we may have to do more for the good of the world and ourselves than remembering to switch off the light and taking the bus instead of the car.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Pharisee who asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life quoted the law that said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, strength and mind and thy neighbour as thyself.”
In other words, respect nature and put the need of others before your own.
Jesus said: “Go and do likewise.”
In other words, don’t just say it, do it. The time has come for the three Gs to pay attention to the three Fs and do it.