TIME
“Time and Tide Wait for no Man”, Geoffrey Chaucer. A most famous quote and most appropriate.”Time, he’s waiting in the wings, he speaks of senseless things……”, “TIME” by David Bowie. I included this because I reckon the Song, especially the piano work is awesome!
Time is of the essence here People! Humans are stuffing up Climate as we know it. It is just plain Dangerous to Deny the now well established Truth of our Climate patterns going haywire due to Human activity. It is even more Dangerous to delay action.
Year 2050 has been the focus of validated Doomsday forecasts for some time. That is the year when our Oceans and Seas runneth over and drown way more than a Billion Humans. Cities, Towns and Villages will not be the same as we know within our lifetime. This time used to span two, not just one of our Lifetimes. “Times a tickin away Maria!”, as they say in the Classics. Tic tic tic tic tic tic tic tic tic tic tic TOC tic tic tic tic t.. …………………..“This is still Serious Mum!!. I am not joking.
In reality is will be a sneaky and increasing Disaster of rising Sea levels and darkening Climate moods over 30 years to 2050. There maybe much less drowning than described above, but mass enforced migrations of Humans away from rising seas will occur and place additional Climate related stress on neighbors. Major local Disasters will happen through greater frequency of Extreme weather events.
Human life will be much tougher for the almost 8 Billion living on the surface. My children will be roughly 60 years old and Grandchild Millie currently 3 months old, will be 30 Years old. I will most likely be Dead or quite a cranky 92 Year old who is still wondering why only very few ever read A Warming Argument.
Humans still have the capability to reduce the effects of Global warming in making a difference for Millie’s existence over the near future. All it takes is a measure of Cooperation in adapting to our increasingly hostile World. Adapt or Die. Simple. No choice. This senseless Warming argument needs to stop and stop right now, not 5 years, 10 or 20, NOW. We are squeezing the need to rectify our damaging behavior into a tighter time frame. It makes great Pressure for all to deal with. Humans will have a far tougher time adapting to the future by the time 2050 arrives. Science or no Science!
Scientists, Planners and Landscape professionals such as myself work with time in our deliberations. We understand that 50 – 100 years is not a long way away. 50 years after all is just two generations. Davey Street in downtown Hobart Tasmania was planted with Street Trees in 1985 that will reach their designed Maturity in about the Year 2100. The designer (L. Arch) will be long dead. We design for a future we will never see, with comfort and pleasure of future generations first and foremost in our minds.
Similarly, Scientists back in the 1960’s and 70’s Climate modeled to 2050 and beyond, knowing that they may not be around to witness proof of their modelling. But, they were clear on the potential implications for all Humans if the modelling was ignored. Actuary’s working for Global Insurers, Government and Industry did their own version of the Time modelling to map the future liabilities and other outcomes from Climate impacts. They fed that truth back to Industry and Government through application of the Sciences, not through half baked theory or crystal ball gazing. So why did Industry and Government take the Actuary truth and incorporate into future plans, yet then choose to ignore or reverse down the track? Any fresh Actuary advice years later would reinforce the same outcomes. Is it just about making profit before the inevitable happens? I would like to think not.
Talk near future with the average human and it will be next week, a few years or at the longest the span of their lifetime. We have to some extent become conditioned to not consider that near future is a bit further away than next week or next year. Beyond our lifetime? Who cares? Culturally, we have been manipulated to exist with instant gratification, instant news, instant stock market fluctuations, advertising that promises everything now. Not all of us, but many have lost the concept of time.
Society has regressed in dealing with Climate based problems that arise. 50 years ago a severe storm may cause power blackouts. People patiently appreciated the issues and were already stocked up on necessities for a potential emergency and accepted that there may be inconvenience. A Power blackout of similar stature now? Social media is awash within hours of vitriol and rebukes of Authorities for allowing Mother Nature to have her way and shouting why is everything not working properly yet.
Nature is arms length removed from our existence, until it reminds us harshly that nature exists. 50 years ago most of us still connected with Nature. Now, our understanding of Nature has severely diminished. Our connection is almost gone. Yet again, Industry and Conservative Governments have the rest of where they want us to be. Be dependent on their largess, be compliant to believe anything and everything that is so thoughtfully handed down to the rest of us. To remind us time and time again – “Don’t you worry about that!”. Plainly they cannot be trusted to look after our welfare by being reckless in dealing with truth of Climate change. Increasing Observation (Science style) indicates the “Bad Old Days” never really left us much at all. Definitely a 100% verifiable statistic. As far as Time is concerned they really do not care. A great pity to the rest of us Humans and especially to them.
When I first received the Bad News of Global Warming in 1977, I could not imagine that this Observational Science debate could lead to a War. Time meant 43 years of increasing observation towards the Proof in global warming and impact on Climate. “Plenty of TIME“, I said to myself in 1977 to sort Global Warming out. “Sooner we start fixing stuff, the cheaper it will be in 2020 to deal with this when Climate Moods start getting interesting. Oh well, in the meantime I’ll just keep jamming Plants in the Ground then”. And off I went…..married, children, business, planting and other good stuff like maintaining a skeptics perspective.
By 2004, Skeptic Chris finally had a well earned rest due to acceptance of the Proof of crazy climate variations mainly due to Global Warming. Yay! Unfortunately not so Yay! When I started delving into recent History of the previous years of the War, Skeptic mode had to be switched back on and quickly, no choice! So called Climate skeptics and deniers saw to that. Progress towards limiting Greenhouse gas emissions was fractured and limited. Really nasty things were being said about Climate Scientists. Kyoto Protocol happened but failed to turn the corner of our Carbon based tide to Disaster. Change was increasingly running into a brick wall.
Industry and compliant Governments have been partly successful in almost stopping time, even reverse it a bit. Smog is on the increase in US Cities for first time in many years. The USA EPA has undergone some transformation under the current President (Trump). Enforcement is not like it used to be. Staff have have been replaced with those of long term Industry allegiance. Legislation reviews and changes are ongoing. Surely, cannot head back in time towards smog laden New York circa 1966, when the ‘free market’ did whatever it felt like? USA under Conservative Governments of G Bush and now D Trump, pulled out of Paris Agreement early on just like they did with Kyoto protocol. Why? Cannot interfere with the so called ‘Free Market’? “We have to stop the Commies at the Borders”? Whatever the reason may be, none of them make logical sense to the rest of us. If the Climate Change war hatchet is not buried now, there will be no World for you to ‘Free market’ on. This Warming Argument would NOT be written if you had just stayed in the Agreements and chose to work as part of the World, to not be tunnel visioned and protectionist as you have.
Climate activism has had to resort back to age old tactics of disruption to re-gain some publicity as to our plight. 350.org, Energy Action Coalition, Global Call for Climate Action have headed back to the streets, Government institutions and Universities, culminating in 2019 with Global Climate Strike. An incredibly aware and mindful person in Greta Thunberg realised that time is up for us argumentative and arrogant older generation. We have to move over and let her generation highlight the way forward in this decreasing time-frame towards disaster. Greta and her supporters have had enough of the olds and are screaming “OK Boomer” at us over our increasing refusal to utilise Brains in the way they were designed. (see ZEALOTS) I 100% agree with them. We of the older generation are behaving terribly!
I am a natural Skeptic in observation. Repeated validation and firming up on proofs is a standard honest, ethical and moral process of learning. A person cannot claim to be a Skeptic or Deny by just opposing for the sake of opposing. A person needs facts to justify the story, otherwise they are just a cheap and nasty zero credibility skeptic. To Deny and ignore overwhelming evidence deserves a frustrated and abusive response. Greta Thunberg and her generation know the truth of our Generation’s created mess. I will make sure Millie’s generation knows while I hang my head in shame at our non-cooperative ways. Can my generation finally slip off our mortal coil, comfortable in the knowledge that we did all we could to prepare the next generation for what is surely to come? We have so far failed them.
Are our combined Egos getting in the way of Adapting our future, to mitigate these Global warming effects? See more in Adapt or … coming next.
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