At the start of November the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will meet in Glasgow Scotland to discuss the climate crisis. It was originally scheduled for a year ago but was postponed due to Covid-19. This will be a pivotal moment for the future of our species, if we can not come together as a global community to fight climate change I fear that the earth's environmental health will change drastically in the next millennium and will no longer be hospitable for the life it currently supports. In a speech recently to the UN general assembly, Boris Johnson took what was to me a shocking stance. Historically Boris Johnson has not made climate control a high priority, but in his speech he takes a totally different stance. He compared the human species to other mammalian species and how long we have been on earth. For as long as mammals have been on earth the average species lasts about a million years before it goes extinct or evolves into something else. Modern humans have only been around for 200,000 years making us only 16 years old as a species, the age when you've learned just enough to get yourself into serious trouble. Boris said that our species as a whole needs to "grow up" and face the damages we have caused over the past century, and that we cannot keep acting like "adolescents" who never face real consequence. While hearing this from a prominent conservative is a good sign for the earth it is extremely frustrating that it has taken this long for him to recognize reality. I believe he and other politicians are well aware of the climate effects they are causing and have been for a long time, but refuse to publicly acknowledge it for political purposes. It seems now public opinion has swayed for enough that being green is now the more politically savvy move. This is good news for the earth but shows the glaring faults in our nations leaders.
Link to speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpze1aEJygA
1 comment:
Cooper, I did a blog around climate change as well for this blog period. It will be interesting how rich countries like Great Britain attempt to tackle climate change. How would major industries react if governments told them that they needed to scale down production and labor each year to reduce emissions? How will countries adapt to new energy sources and how much time and money would it take to create this new economy? I think it will be very exciting to see this unfold during our lifetimes.
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