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Climate Crisis Not Getting Better

What we need is a Y2K date on the calendar to force action.

How do you compare quarterly profits with an end date that is 30 years in the future? It is difficult at best to get people to think a few years in the future, let alone three decades to 2050. It is the anticipated date of "no return" if we have not kept the world's temperatures from rising 1.5-2 degrees.

The UN chief is trying to ring the alarm bells, but most decision-makers have their ear plugs firmly affixed and can't hear them. See Decrying 'Utterly Inadequate' Efforts to Tackle Climate Crisis, UN Chief Declares 'Our War Against Nature Must Stop.'

I believe that even if we had absolute proof that the impending disaster for the world was uncontested — people and organizations would be reluctant to act today. No "fake news" claims, just that it was a given fact, as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, this will be our climate situation in 2050.

Taking away the "if factor," there would still be millions of "well-informed" people who would chose to ignore the future in order to maintain what they have today. There would be those old folks, perhaps my age, who would say, "I'll be 100 in 2050" so what do I care. I'll likely be dead. 

Another group of people will say there is no way to reverse the process, so why try to submit ourselves to deprivation (like only one coffee a day?) that negatively influences me and how I have behaved and acted in the past. Maps like the one below that shows the future impact of sea rise on the coast of Vietnam appears to carry no weight for those not living on or near an ocean. 

There is a reason that younger people are leading the charge against "doing nothing" and show real concern for the future of their world. They won't be dead; many will have children they are raising in an era of rapid climate impacts. 

For those who are trying to do something in advance of a future calamity, they are getting the same treatment as Noah, who was building an ark on dry land before it started raining. Once the rains start falling, it will be too late for many to adapt to the new reality. Then who will be laughing?

 

Image result for map of vietnam and sea rise impacts"


Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.