Why I am climate striking
I wanted to tell you why I am joining the upcoming global climate strikes in San Francisco on September 20 and September 25th.
We are at serious, serious risk of hitting tipping points where the earth starts warming itself and we can do nothing to stop it:
- Melting ice caps are creating darker water, causing more warming
- Burning and dying forests and peat lands turning from carbon sinks to carbon sources, causing more warming and more fires
- Melting permafrost releases carbon and methane, causing more warming, melting more permafrost
- Warm waters in the ocean kills off phytoplankton. Less phytoplankton less C02 absorbed, which mean more warm waters and less oxygen.
When these tipping points hit, we are at risk of not just a 1.5 or 2 celcius warming, but 5 or 6 warming. And warming at that level could kick off even more tipping points such as the loss of stratocumulus clouds. We could hit up to 8 celcius warming.
This level of warming has happened before, and it can happen again.
Don’t get me wrong, life is incredibly adaptable and will go on, and I suspect over the millenia we will ultimately cycle back to an atmosphere rich in oxygen. Nature is slow and patient.
It is the impact to the human race that is the real concern. Impacts include over 200 feet sea level rise, massive decrease in arable land and food supplies, millions of climate refugees, and large swaths of land in the center of the planet becoming competely uninhabitable. And yes, many people will die.
And after a certain point, there will be nothing we can do about this, the world will continue to increase warming all by itself even if we don’t put out any more CO2 ourselves.
There actually is still a small window of time where we can pull the brakes on this train. But it requires massive coordinated action at a global scale. And the folks currently in power are unable to face the sacrifices this requires. As Upton Sinclair once famously said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”
Our only choice is to force them to do so. To me the first step towards this is awareness. We are all suffering from the bystander effect. Tell the truth, let everyone know the truth, and help all of us to understand the severity of the situation. This is an existential crisis. When we all start seeing the situation for what it is, we will demand action.
Our politicians are followers. They know how to see where the wind is blowing and will follow that wind. We have seen this before with women’s suffrage, civil rights, and gay marriage. We can do this.
So, that is why I am writing to you, and that is why I am striking. Perhaps you will be inspired to join me. Even if we ultimately fail, I want to be able to look my grandchildren and their generation in the eye and tell them that, while there was still a possibility of stopping this thing, I did everything I could.
