borisburke: Anyone remember the Tobacco industry [TI], before the health issues became obvious? Now we have warnings at every turn and pictures of cadavers on the packaging. Do you think the TI welcomed these changes with open arms?
Of course not. They got together and arranged to spend huge amounts of money on a campaign of disinformation, and tried desperately to fight change at every turn. Even today, the situation is almost laughable. What other product can you freely buy at every corner shop that is covered completely with warnings about how 'this product
will kill you'?
Big oil has known about climate change for decades, and their response? Exactly the same as the TI. To paraphrase a
1979 film, 'Protect profits, priority one, all other priorities rescinded.'
Many people still believe their lies and insist that man-made climate change is a myth. The world is burning before our eyes, yet as long as profits keep rolling in, the campaign will be well funded and people will resist the changes necessary to address the problem.
Too many people for too long have been saying; Meh, I'll be long dead before it affects anyone, so it's not my problem. Look around. People a being killed and displaced
right now as a direct result of what could have been avoided if we had acted sooner. And it can only get worse.
When the power went out in Texas last year, the petrochemical industry quickly responded by blaming failed wind turbines. The fact is that many wind turbines did indeed fail, and so did a lot of other infrastructure, as a result of unprecedented freezing around that whole region of the country. It was an extreme weather event that effected about a quarter of North America, and it fits perfectly with climate change models that have been public knowledge for decades.
One of the most significant recent developments was under-reported, and you may have missed it. The permafrost in Northern Europe / Siberia is currently storing enough methane to raise global temperatures by more than enough to make it irreversible for the foreseeable future. And it's melting at a rate unprecedented in human history. Not tomorrow or next generation. Right now.
If tomorrow, carbon emissions were reduced to half of today's volume, it could still be too little too late.
Any move to improve efficiency of electrical consumer goods is a move in the right direction, and the same applies to any carbon contributor. But the damage done by the petrochemical propaganda machine is too big to fight with such small measures.
Even if it's possible, reversing man-made climate change will be tough, expensive, and it will affect everyone. And each day that goes by without drastic change, just means the changes will need to be more drastic, more expensive, and less appealing.
In the words of Ash. '"I can't lie to you about your chances. But, you have my sympathies."
And there is a bigger problem nobody wants to talk about. Overpopulation. Not only humanity is burning the planet. Humanity is also, literally, consuming it: Overexploitation of aquifers, lakes and rivers; overfishing; forests and rainforests being burned to create cultivation lands; the soil being poluted (and the aquifers) with chemicals to increase the farming production to the max; etc.
The maths are simple, the more people on the planet, the more resources are going to be needed: Fresh water, food, raw minerals, plastics, electricity, etc.
It is absolutely necessary to be more eco-friendly and efficient. But it is not the solution because it won´t be enough if the population of the planet is increased by several thousand of million people during the next decades.
If there is not enough water and food for everybody in the present, what will happen in the future when there will be thousands of millions of more people to be fed?
