Another Bad News Day
COP 58
Let’s Pray we Never Get to this Point
“There are some who think we’ve already run out of time, that the hard landing is upon us now, which is what we’re seeing in current events. Have you heard that the warming of the oceans means that the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in fish and thus available for human consumption may drop by as much as sixty percent?
And that these fatty acids are crucial to signal transduction in the brain, so it’s possible that our collective intelligence is now rapidly dropping because of an ocean-warming-caused diminishment in brain power? That would explain a lot.”
(from “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson)
I’m about 80% of the way through this massive book set 20 or so years in the future- CO2e levels are plateauing at 455 ppm, and starting to come down as some of the measures we should take in the next decade to avoid 1.5C+ overheating have taken 2 decades instead of one. Overheating of 2C+ and runaway warming are now likely in 2040, unless massive carbon drawdown accelerates.
“I read the news today, oh boy!”-
A Day in the Life by the Beatles, May 26, 1967- and what Bad News it is!
And then I made the mistake of reading all the news that’s mostly fit to print this morning, as I do every day with my plate of cereal and coffee. Lo and behold, the Boris Show now replaces the Trump Show in the headlines, as a no-deal Brexit looms before us. My kids in London won’t be able to visit us without a French visa. And I’ll now have the same rights as my Russian wife- to stay in France for another ten years unless I get a further Carte de Sejour in 2030. Luckily we are permanent residents so we get free healthcare.To the billionaires who fund and orchestrate the Boris Show so that they can continue to use the UK to pay virtually no tax (4% on global income for Murdoch, a major Brexit funder and supporter through his fake news newspapers, for example), ensuring that the rest of us pay way beyond our fair share, I hope your milk curdles as Brexit bites and throws millions into even greater poverty than they are now. A pox on all your houses and private jets. I rarely feel such levels of anger, as I’ve never expected the world to be fair- just a little bit better than it was a year ago. Right now we are going backwards to 1928 socially and financially.
I remains to be seen whether Biden and his team can deliver what is required to avoid further catastrophe socially and environ-mentally. The Boris Show is making good noises on COP 26 in Glasgow next year, with nationally defined commitments (NDC’s) that look like they may be aligned to a less than 2C warming scenario- but will they, can they actually deliver? Or is this just more smoke and mirrors?
So, perhaps I will finish “Ministry of the Future” this week, and be sufficiently provoked by some of the nightmare scenarios to redouble my efforts to avoid such a dystopian outcome. My question is, are you with me?
