I have no doubt that climate change is a real and serious thing and it’s caused by human activity.
I also have no doubt that the world has seen much bigger ‘natural’ changes in climate on a regular basis. Indeed, we are currently living in a brief ‘warm’ gap between Ice ages which has already lasted much longer than scientists predicted. Massive volcanic explosions and meteor strikes are also overdue, blacking out the sun for years. Mass extinctions happen regularly, over 99.9% of all species that have ever existed on earth are extinct.
So, COP26 etc, aren’t trying to ‘save the planet’, they are trying to save humanity and preserve in aspic the ecosystems that we thrive in. Perhaps if our leaders were more honest about this they would be more successful in getting concerted support for action. It’s about saving ourselves. I’d quite like us to succeed but don’t think we will because it requires a level of global cooperation we have never seen before. It’s a shame for our descendants, but hey, we would be extinct as a species at some stage anyway, and perhaps it’s better that we get it over and done with in the next few hundred years rather than wait for the inevitable other extinction event, geological, climate, pandemic or whatever, which will do for us. The world will recover pretty quickly in planetary terms, and there will be lots of new species to take the place of those which don’t make it.
Best chance of slowing climate change is, of course, by making it profitable. Better get a move on because, in a world driven by insane continuous economic growth, all the incentives are pushing us the other way. Failing this we need a near total economic collapse and a return to Middle Ages style inertia. For a long time, the decrease in emissions associated with the pandemic last year when economic activity decreased dramatically caused zero change to climate warming apparently. Perhaps the tipping point has already been passed.
But when I look and listen to the advocates, politicians, protesters etc in Glasgow I increasingly couldn’t care less. I regret the inevitable pain, distress and suffering billions will experience if we continue on our current path, and I will do my best to limit my own contribution to it, but I’m not going to spend what time I have left worrying about it.
Why do we get wound up by India’s contribution to carbon emissions? The emit 1.91 metric tonnes per person. The U.K. emits 5.55 tonnes and lovely Qatar 37.29. It’s a function of economy, air conditioning and population size. People having a go at India might as well say they should cull their people.
https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-per-capita/
