This article in the Wash Post highlights the importance of urgent action to prevent catastrophic climate change impacts, and that the goal of keeping global temperatures to 1.5 is within reach if we act now. This is a crucial fact that will be highlighted in the upcoming IPCC report on Feb 28th (one day before the release of my climate change novel, Starseed R/evolution, which describes our Earth in the year 2037 without urgent action).
What the article didn’t address are other reasons we need to do this immediately.
The first, is the global decline in biodiversity. We are losing 150 species a day according to the UN Convention on Biological diversity, and by the year 2050, approximately 25-33% of all species will be extinct on our planet. There are multiple scientific articles published in the peer reviewed literature on this subject (I will be posting a You Tube video of my talk on the global health effects of climate change and doing another talk on Monday eve. Stay tuned). This is being referred to as the early stages of our 6th extinction. We need biodiversity, and healthy insect populations, especially pollinators. Without pollinators (bee populations are rapidly declining in many states) we can’t easily grow food. The answer: stop dumping thousands of environmental chemicals into the environment that are acting as endocrine disruptors, while protecting and restoring 50% of the Earth’s lands and oceans as protected areas for biodiversity.
The second reason we need to act with urgency: the Thwaites glacier in western Antarctica is cracking and climate scientists estimate we have 3-5 years before it collapses into the ocean, leading to a minimum of a global 2 foot sea level rise. I don’t think anyone wants to see NYC, Brooklyn, Miami, coastal cities in the US, Europe and Asia and Bangladesh under water. The answer: geoengineering. Cool the Arctic with solutions from Harvard, Stamford and other major universities. The methane spikes that are now happening across the planet (US, Russia and other countries), are speeding up global warming (methane has a warming effect 30-80 x more powerful that CO2 over shorter time frames). Once we hit certain tipping points, the process will speed up. We must geoengineer now. The last time a major volcanic eruption happened in 1991, we cooled the planet by 0.5 degrees Centigrade. We can mimic such cooling with sulfates at 60,000 feet in the stratosphere over Antarctica, along with solar reflectors in the ocean and cloud brightening to reflect UV radiation back into space.
The third reason we need to act with urgency is that the US is particularly vulnerable to the effects of the climate. The Department of Defense has published a report on the risks the climate poses to our national security. It is significant, because of flooding, desertification, wildfires, pollution and the electric grid going down. Elon Musk has determined that a 100 by 100 square mile area of desert in CA/NV/AZ with present solar panel efficiency would give the US all the power we need without using fossil fuels, or being dependent on foreign sources of energy (look at the geopolitical tensions in Europe and the gas line that is being halted between Russia and Germany). Mark Jacobson from Stanford, who is highlighted in Starseed R/evolution, has a road map for 139 countries to become carbon neutral, relying on WWS, which will save energy and create millions of high paying jobs. If we do this now in the US and show the world it is possible, we will pave the way for other countries to follow our lead. This will provide resiliency for our country and vulnerable populations (climate injustice is racial injustice, see the blog under ‘climate’ on the starseed revolution website).
The fourth solution, apart from electrifying everything, protecting and restoring 50% of the planet and geoengineering is regenerative agriculture. Food supplies are going to be in great demand due to flooding, droughts and destruction of farmland. Present agricultural practices use nitrates which form nitric oxide, which heats the planet up to 300 x more than CO2, even more than methane. We need to stop adding powerful greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and establish more efficient farming practices as livestock populations go down and water is at a premium.
The dangers of our rapidly changing climate to biodiversity and rapidly warming conditions in the Artic (which has heated up 2-5 x more than N. America) means we must act with urgency. We have solutions. There is hope for those with climate grief! These solutions are highlighted in Starseed R/evolution. Will you help Prince Ian of Arcturus get the message out to the world and help him save the planet? Together, we can do this!