Climate Crisis Fuels Chaos
I'm not a climate change denier - I believe climate change is happening, I believe there is a need to shift towards having less of an impact on our environment, and I believe there is a tremendous need to adapt to what the future will be however, I also believe we have stepped over a rational line and into a territory where the much larger risk to humankind is one where a scary graphs enable very scary solutions to become real possibilities. We have told our children that their future is at risk, we have allowed other children to tell them the same - and now we're incredibly surprised by what is unfolding before us. Chaos. Deep divides - and a scuttling of rational progress towards the future - a progress that until the past few weeks included continued reconciliation with the nations first nations.
A full stop discontinuance of the use of fossil fuels is not feasible. It would result in the death and starvation of millions (perhaps even billions) in the short term. There is little in the modern world that is not facilitated by the use of fossil fuels - and the alternatives are still in the process of being developed. So while, we're on the road to having an alternative, would it not be wise to use the resources we have wisely? Would it not be wise to allow oil and gas to be developed where doing so is subjected to rigorous environmental review and high labour standards (and limit the resource use from places that do not have high environmental and labour standards)? Would it not be wise to use resources that emit fewer green house gases than their alternatives, enabling the biggest producers of green house gas emissions to significantly reduce their footprint (like China switching from coal to LNG). Would it not be prudent to enable struggling first nations to get an economic lift in the process?
Meaningful and sustainable change is rarely revolutionary - rather it is the consequence of an evolution of choices.
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