The oceans are in danger. We need to do more than ban plastic straws

Over the past year, the movement to ban plastic straws has seen tremendous success. Major companies including Starbucks have decided to eliminate them in their stores, and some metropolitan areas have passed citywide bans. This consumer and environmental trend has been an encouraging example of collective action on an economy-wide scale and has no doubt helped keep plastic out of our oceans and out of marine life. But ultimately, these actions are small steps toward solving a massive problem. To truly save the ocean, we must take serious action to halt climate change on a global scale — and soon.

A paddle boarder gets in some exercise in the early
 morning off the beach at the Isle of Palms, S.C. 

Our oceans are critical to every part of our lives — they feed us, transport us, secure our borders, employ us, give us oxygen and inspire us — but week after week, headlines reflect gloom and doom. Coral reefs around the world are dying; rising seas are flooding coastal communities and threatening to overwhelm some of the world’s busiest airports; fishermen from New England to Alaska are hauling in empty nets; and intensifying storms threaten not just our coastlines but inland communities as well. Climate change is a major contributor to all these problems, and yet the ocean is far too often left out of conversations about climate solutions.

Read the story from The Washington Post by Joe Podesta  - “The oceans are in danger. We need to do more than ban plastic straws.”

Learning something about the dangers of 'Plan B'

Geoengineering, it has been said is about the intentional manipulation of the planetary systems at a global scale with the aim of combatting climate change.

Taking to the planet
with a spanner.

It is often introduced as a “plan B”: an alternative solution in case “plan A”, reducing emissions, fails.

This framing is typically deployed as part of an argument that research and development is necessary in case robust conventional mitigation is not forthcoming, or proves insufficient to prevent dangerous climate impacts. Though sometimes used to refer to geoengineering as a whole, the plan B framing is associated particularly strongly with stratospheric sulfate injection (SSI) techniques.

Teaching Fellow and Online Learning Specialist with Leeds University, Dr Joe Saunders, says: “We argue that the plan B framing oversimplifies a complex issue in a misleading and deceptive way.

“For instance, it highlights extreme positions, presents SSI as an alternative independent from mainstream policies, ignores the multiplicity of options available, and neglects threats of morally indecent SSI in a context of ongoing political inertia.

“We are particularly concerned about the way ‘Plan B’ risks conveying an implicit hyper-optimism about SSI, and so obscures the need for ethical standards. One upshot of our analysis is that rather than a comparative assessment of mitigation and geoengineering, we should encourage a more integrative approach,” he said.

Read about the University of Leeds online seminar - “Stephen Gardiner - Why Geoengineering is Not ‘Plan B’,” and registration for the event is through Dr Saunders.

We are, truly, the canary in the coalmine

Some have suggested that Australia, particularly south-eastern Australia, is like the “canary in the coalmine” with regard to climate change.

That view has been reinforced by a story in National Geographic headed:  “Is Australia the Face of Climate Change to Come?”

The “kicker” headline further confirms that view in that is says: “Extreme weather Down Under may foreshadow events on a global scale”.

The National Geographic story discusses all the floods, wildfires, tornadoes and hitherto unseen snow storms, downpours and other extreme weather events from around the world, and then suggests they are becoming commonplace in Australia.

“Each of these one-off traumas was bad enough, wreaking havoc, but in Australia such events seem to be becoming commonplace.

“The Lucky Country has experienced a major spike in extreme weather in the past few years, with a string of devastating incidents just since January,” the story says.