Environmentalism: is it too late?

Question

We are just passing the arctic tipping point (where the arctic ocean melts down). Economic growth of 8% per annum is a doubling every decade. If Indian, Chinese and other fast growing economies double global industrial CO2 emissions in the next decade ALL the other tipping points will be passed before mid century. Is the only way forward is to plan what to do during and after the global catastrophe?

Reference for arctic melting New Scientist 16th Aug 07:
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg19526173.900-climate-tipping-points-loom-large.html

Answer 1

I agree we DO need to plan, cos we've had a foretaste of what flooding is like... while we've got a breathing space... we need to grab this opportunity with both hands and make the things we need so we survive the onslaught ahead... not just with Climate Change but also Oil Peak which is also looming.

No, it's not too late, but time IS slipping through our fingers...

Check out www.the-alternative.org.uk
The need for ACTION etc is detailed in the FREE ONLINE BOOK (which is a summary of the debates i.e. what's already been said) + you can DOWNLOAD Design Specifications and an ACTION PLAN, also for free.

Answer 2

Pretty much, the way the world is set up now, and economic growth is the be all and end all and you have places like China and India and others who have gotten prosperous far faster than their governments can even come close to effectively dealing with and then put on top of that rampant corruption and criminal activity in and outside of government and you have a recipe for disaster. We are at the crossroads and we can't afford to jerk around any more and we need to get absolutely serious about dealing with this so of course that's precisely what we aren't going to do, and we are all going to pay a very large price.

Answer 3

The environment is not a single issue like CO2/climate change

There are many human resource/distruction issues reaching crisis now - water, peak oil, soil errosion, overfishing ....
The environmental lifesupport systems are way overstreched by the scale and demads of the human population.

It is to late for our industrial growth society to adjust. The planet will continue and re-balance itself, probably in a form not condusive to humans & certainly not for 6-9billion

There are alternatives which could give us better lifestyles and work within our environment limits, but where is the profit in that

to progress beyond the denial or despair there are many proven practices, see the work of Joanna Macy http://www.joannamacy.net

or http://www.greatturningtimes.org

Answer 4

Environmrntalism is never too late. This is never the only way forward to plan what to do during and after the global catastrophe.

Answer 5

I would like to post a recent news release that might answer your question:

Climate Warming, A New Look

Jet aircraft emissions and their probable climate change impacts have
highlighted a need for a tutorial focus on global wind patterns, as they are
fundamental to understanding global pollutant distribution. Accordingly,
“Climate Change and Global Winds”, a new study authored by Ross Ruthenberg,
examines the major global wind patterns and draws a nexus from jet aircraft
emissions to the warming of the arctic (http://areco.org/studies.htm#climate).


“It is very important to spotlight aircraft, if for nothing else, but for the
fact that when all aircraft in the U.S. were grounded after the 9-11 attack, the
temperature quickly reverted back to pre-1950’s; over one degree Celsius,
diurnally, over the U.S. (Travis, 2002)," states Jack Saporito, spokesperson for
various watchdog organizations.


There is a great need for the general population and scientists alike to regard
jet aircraft emissions as a major cause of man-made climate change and to
qualitatively and quantitatively understand all of its potential climate
influences (e.g. wind patterns, contrails, solar masking, particulates, ice,
etc.), beyond just its impact of "traditional" greenhouse gases in the
low-altitude atmosphere.


The new study highlights that, whereas, perhaps 3-6% of current low-altitude
"greenhouse gas" emissions are from aircraft, 100% of all emissions emitted
directly into the tropopause/lower stratosphere and "jet streams" come from
aircraft where they can have large climate change impact. Wind-driven aircraft
pollutant transport into Greenland and the arctic region is of particular
concern, in that high rates of arctic warming are being experienced in recent
years/decades. Adding to this serious concern, is that many international
flights, increasing with time, are by way of "over-the-top" routes, which places
jet aircraft emissions directly into the arctic region.

It is also important to note that worldwide flights are predicted to increase
massively, over the next few decades, greatly worsening impacts on both global
warming, and, perhaps more importantly, on Greenland/arctic ice melting.
Additionally, much of the jet aircraft emissions, which are not
naturally-occurring in our upper atmosphere, have not been studied individually
or synergistically and are not now, nor planned to be, characterized, quantified
and standardized by governmental regulatory bodies, such as the USEPA, ICAO,
etc.


The few characterizations that regulators make generally are limited to
emissions below approximately 1000 meters altitude, and the aviation industry
and governments are loath to discuss additional low-altitude emissions (e.g.
particulate matter, toxics, etc.) and any "cruise altitude" emissions. Yet, as
the study suggests, these high altitude emissions could probably be even more
important to global and arctic warming.


The study’s objective is to provide an improved layman understanding of primary
global wind circulation patterns as pollutant transport mechanisms, in order to
improve communication on these important issues, between various technically
separated parties, including meteorologists, climate change physicists and
environmentalists.

# # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jack Saporito, [phone]

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Answer 6

Not to late for me I'm to old to worry about it but i would say the best for the young generation is to figure out how to survive it . I cant see my generation and my oldest kids generation doing anything about the situation that the young say like 16 year old generation is going to face . The future is there's I hope survive .

Answer 7

We are just passing an arctic tipping point huh?

Care to share your reference?

Answer 8

We mustn't give up hope...We can all start with ourselves and post ourselves a question: what do I do to lessen the human impact on the environment ? It may sound funny to you, but if everyone behaved responsible there wouldn't be as much of the environmental problems as it is...

Answer 9

try thinking positively.quit watching so much news.the earth has the ability 2 heal herself and so do we.r u recycling,or doing your part 2 help?or r u just trying 2 bring people down.

Answer 10

Yeah, Probably, but concidering it is a natural phonomonon that we have absolutely no controll or influance on then I wouldn't worry. We survived an ice age, we can survive this!