Lifestyle

Black, White or Green?

By Felipe Robayo / October 18, 2019

“The destiny of world civilization depends upon providing a decent standard of living for all mankind.”

—Norman Borlaug, Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1970

Humanity and Climate Change

In the past four decades there have been a variety of scientific, governmental, non-profit and private researches on the impact humans have had on the environment within the last century.

The findings are both saddening yet practical, for they establish a new need: compromise and responsibility to take action regarding climate change in order to safeguard earth for future generations.

The U.S. Naval War College started studying climate change in the late 1980’s and alongside think tanks, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Intelligence Community, the U.S. NAVY, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Department of Defense, The White House, the Pentagon, the CNA Military Advisory Board, the CIA, the Air Force, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Research Council representing the U.S. National Academies have agreed on one thing: human-triggered climate change is a reality and immediate action is necessary.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an agreement as to what type of action must follow.

For example, for the U.S. Department of Defense, the route is to have the U.S. Military Forces prepare for the new climactic contingencies in order to preserve national security. Whereas environmental activists around the globe demand stopping fossil fuel burning as the main source for energy production.

Dr. Peter H. Gleick, an eminence in Energy and Resources and current President Emeritus of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California, said to the United States Congress Committee on Government Reform in May 2006 regarding possible repercussions of climate change: “Five critical areas stand out as important examples of national vulnerabilities with security implications: agricultural productivity, the availability and quality of freshwater resources, access to strategic minerals, rising sea level, and the deterioration of political relationships with other countries that result from disagreements about international climate policy.”

This is happening today at both the Arctic and the Antarctic, since the regions are abundant in resources such as oil, natural gas, minerals, fish and water, and world powers such as U.S.A., Russia and China are already establishing base in the poles in order to secure trade routes and recognize potential exploitation grounds.

According to a strategy report prepared by the U.S. Coast Guard in May 2013, “Climate-change impacts in Alaska are already apparent, including earlier spring snowmelt, reduced sea ice, widespread glacier retreat, warmer permafrost, drier landscapes, and more extensive insect outbreaks and wildfires.”

Furthermore, they point out competition “will challenge norms of safety, security, and environmental sustainability throughout the region.”

Yet, we hear leaders of different nations publicly denying this crude, stressful and anguishing reality of climate change to the verge of mockery. It is both disheartening and worrisome.

Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, denied the shared heritage of the Amazon as the world’s lungs during the annual debate in the UN General Assembly denouncing it was a wrongly popularized international fallacy which infringed Brazilian sovereignty.

He also asserted international media was lying about fire consuming the Amazon, even though images of the fire eating the forest spread all over the world.

Russian president Vladimir Putin undermined Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg’s knowledge and understanding of worldwide priorities by saying “No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and different and… people in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”

U.S. president Donald Trump announced on June 1, 2017 the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, a treaty signed by 195 nations worldwide excepting Syria and Nicaragua in December 2015.

The treaty seeks to avoid an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7ºF) above preindustrial levels, because scientists have warned such an increase could result in an irreversible and catastrophic domino effect of climate extremes such as superstorms, drought and heat waves.

Sadly, these presidential actions become a model for citizens who prefer to believe unsubstantiated claims instead of researching and informing themselves with scientific evidence and conclusions.

Furthermore, they adopt the same attitude and troll any environmentally friendly action, condemning it of alarmist, exaggerated and inconclusive, and even more dangerously, confusing it with communism or socialism, which gives them moral grounds to demonize any demonstration of concern regarding climate change.

However, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel stated in a speech delivered at the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas held in Arequipa, Peru, on October 13, 2014, “Climate change is a threat multiplier. It has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we already confront today – from infectious disease to armed insurgencies.”

The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review of the Department of Defense reinforces this statement by saying “The pressures caused by climate change will influence resource competition while placing additional burdens on economies, societies, and governance institutions around the world. These effects are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions – conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.”

Finally, the Department of Defense stated in a report to congress in July 23, 2015 “The reality of climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources such as food and water. These impacts are already occurring, and the scope, scale, and intensity of these impacts are projected to increase over time.”

A little on Facts

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. They disclose their findings to the general public at www.ipcc.ch/reports, so as citizens of the world we can be informed about the latest understandings of what is happening with our planet’s climate and observe a multiplicity of possible scenarios depending on what type of action we take.

Fundamentally, there is a piece of data which has detonated the massive youth response worldwide. According to Special Report Global Warming of 1.5ºC published in 2018, failure to limit an increase in global average temperature to 1.5ºC was likely to result in fires, floods and famines between the years 2030 and 2052.

This temperature shift is directly related to a carbon budget which currently stands at approximately 400 million tons while current emissions stand at 42 million tons per year. In this sense, the budget could be reached within roughly eight years, yet there are factors such as permafrost thawing and wetland methane emissions which could accelerate this process.

In other words, there is an absence of an exact figure and exact expiration date, but there is general consensus on one thing: regardless the scenario, the greenhouse gases budget is coming to dangerous levels which will result in unpredictable climate hazards putting at risk human continuity on earth.

In the words of former Director of National Intelligence, Daniel R. Coats, who resigned in July 28, 2019 “Global environmental and ecological degradation, as well as climate change, are likely to fuel competition for resources, economic distress, and social discontent through 2019 and beyond. Climate hazards such as extreme weather, higher temperatures, droughts, floods, wildfires, storms, sea level rise, soil degradation, and acidifying oceans are intensifying, threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security. Irreversible damage to ecosystems and habitats will undermine the economic benefits they provide, worsened by air, soil, water, and marine pollution.”

The Underrated Youth

“Over here (USA) it’s (climate change) being discussed as something whether you believe in or not believe in. Where I come from, it’s a fact.”

— Greta Thunberg | The Daily Show

Unfortunately, it’s not just a set of alarmist kids who should be in school who point out the nefarious consequences of unregulated markets which benefit private pockets over worldwide stomachs and safety.

As a matter of fact, it is kids who are projecting themselves towards the future and foresee dire living conditions in which they prefer not to live in, especially when they weren’t the ones who made the executive decisions which will lead them to such conditions.

The main characters at the moment are 16-year-old Swedish Greta Thunberg, who started school striking for the climate in front of the Swedish Parliament.

She has become the spear head of a youth global strike movement for climate protection called #FridaysForFuture, which invites kids all around the world to demand environmental policy change from national elected leaders. On October 20, 2019, about 4 million people in 161 countries marched to protest against climate change inaction.

15-year-old Canadian Autumn Peltier, Wikwemikong water warrior, is an advocate for the preservation of water and on March 22, 2019 she addressed world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on World Water Day proposing to treat water as “Human with human rights. Our water is alive. We all have a right to this water as we need it. No child should grow up not knowing what clean water is. It’s time to warrior up and empower each other to sustain the little we have now and develop ways not to pollute the environment.”

17-year-old Jamie Saraí Margolin is a queer Colombo-American Ashkenazi Jew and founder of the #ThisIsZeroHour movement in Seattle, Washington. She is a writer and activist for climate protection. She wrote for malala.org in December 19, 2018 “We [the upcoming generation] had no power in creating the systems that are destroying our world and futures — and yet we are and will be paying the biggest price for the older generations’ recklessness.”

At a hyperlocal scale, 33-year-old Kevin marched alone around the pier at Lake Eola in Orlando amidst eyes which looked at him as a rare bug on October 27, 2019. Kevin eloquently stated “It’s important to stress structural change rather than putting the onus on individuals who are just working all day.

They can’t impoverish themselves in order to save the environment, the change needs to be structural. However, anytime the system change happens, it starts with people in the grassroots, doing small things, whatever they can: take public transportation, eat less beef, do whatever you can, things will get better when you take action and then hope will be everywhere.”

Finally, the U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known as AOC, has gained international recognition as one of the primary promoters of the Green New Deal (GND), which proposes “Preserving our planet with a just transition focused on economic opportunity: jobs and justice, peace and prosperity.”

AOC addressed the C40 World Mayors Summit held in Copenhagen on October 9th to 12th and said “Climate change is not a coincidence or a scientific anomaly, climate change is a consequence of our unsustainable way of life, centered on prioritizing personal gain and profit over any and all human and planetary considerations.” She emphasized the need to transition towards a new form of industry “should not be daunting, intimidating or lead us to despair. It should be inspiring.”

Lights. Camera. Green.

This superficial journey on climate change has been a quest to further understand what is known, what is happening, what is being done and what is not being done. Science, national intelligence and international committees all agree in climate change being a reality, yet mainstream media coverage is regretfully sub-covering the topic and failing to point out the importance of the situation.

It is through social media, alternative streaming channels and the internet that a sturdy global movement has gained force and consolidated into a massive outcry for reform. Condescending remarks towards youth coming from the elder generations is a sign of ignorant arrogance, a dangerous combination which breeds dogmatic stubbornness and can lead to intergenerational conflict, which is the opposite of what we need right now as a species.

Therefore, the wisest move anyone can make at the moment is to critically inform themselves and take a stance based on reason more so than on emotion. It’s comprehensible that our parents and grandparents can feel belittled by the youth calling them out on their own mistakes, but there is nothing wrong with being wrong, the dangerous problem is to be wrong and unquestionably believe you’re right.

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