We 'chatter' as our options continue to vanish

Options of avoiding catastrophic climate change are quickly becoming fewer.

Accurate measurements show the
 continual rise of Co2 levels.

We knew with near certainty in the late 1980s that human activities were loading the atmosphere up with carbon dioxide and so changing its chemical make-up, and yet we have done effectively nought.

Had we responded to the warning given to the U.S. Congress then by NASA’s James Hansen with the intent his advice warranted we would have been facing a decidedly different future.

Ideological and psychological differences fuelled, what those of Hansen’s ilk considered idle and time wasting chatter contributing nothing to resolving the dilemma facing humanity.

When Hansen talked with Congress the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere was just over 340 parts per million (ppm) and then it was considered that the upper safe limit was 350ppm.

James Hansen.

We have now passed 400ppm; global temperatures have increase by about one degree Celsius and still the global chatter is drowning out the reality of what needs to be done.

Preindustrial age carbon dioxide concentrations were about 280ppm and at the turn of the century, they were closing in on 370ppm.

The present Abbott-led Coalition Government has set an unconditional target of reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 and 15 to 25 per cent, conditional on the extent of international action.

The Australian Government has also committed to a long-term target to cut pollution by 80 per cent below 2000 level by 2050.

The five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 is absolutely inadequate and the likelihood to the 2050 goal being realised would be laughable if the lives of many were not at stake.

James Hansen has argued that a safe climate future for humans and all other life forms on earth rest with the achievement and maintenance of a GHG level of 350ppm. That’s gone and the likelihood of you or me ever seeing that again is not only gone, but barely a memory.

The business as usual world careers on largely unchecked and every indication at this point is that the world will see a four degrees Celsius, at least, increase by the end of this century.

Descriptions of what our world will be like by then are depressing and decidedly different.

It is however, not so much a matter of what do we do for what we have done to earth’s atmosphere will leave the instruction book in the hands of another – nature.

Climatologists of the world generally agree that for us to have any chance at all, we need to stop our GHG emissions right now, not by five per cent below 2000 levels in 2020, but by 100 per cent today.

Impossible, of course, but one step that would make a significant difference and begin our preparation to live in a world unlike anything ever seen in human history , begins with ending our seemingly insatiable list of wants and determining how we replace them with ways we can answer our needs.

The idea of a Four-Hour Work Day, not including public services or farmers, and not permitting overtime or double shifts, would substantially change societal dynamics, building stronger neighbourhoods, communities, towns and cities and within that create the resilience we will urgently need as our energy reserves become even more depleted and the climate changes to become hugely unpredictable, unreliable and foreign to the seasons most people now understand and depend upon to ensure their survival.

Our survival, literally, depends upon us understanding how economics have infiltrated every level of living and how we need to urgently dethrone it to replace it with broader, deeper and greater understanding that success is not about accumulation, rather in bonding with your fellows and sharing.

The Four-Hour Work Day is not about success as it is traditionally understood; it is about building resilience and adaptability.

Robert McLean.