Tours like this one are filled with sobering bits of information. Here’s one now: 2010 was the hottest year for which we have record. This year is set to be the hottest year recorded in a cooling la nina cycle. Pakistan hit the all-time Asia land temperature record last year, at 129 degrees Farenheit. An entire quarter of Pakistan flooded last year, leaving 20,000,000 people homeless. Texas, Oklahoma and some parts of New Mexico are currently experiencing a drought worse than the dust bowl. Obviously, this planet is a different one than the one we evolved on.
But it’s not just Asia. It’s not just Brazil, or the glaciers, or the south west, any other distant locale that “doesn’t affect us”. The future existence of humanity hinges on what we do with the few years left to us to act.
Bill’s speech is straightforward and honest. “One thing I want you to remember from all of this– this is the stuff that happens early on in the global warming era. We’ve already raised the global temperature 1 degree farenheit, and we’re pretty sure that there’s another in the pipeline from all the carbon we’ve burned already. For every tenth of a degree that the earth rises, the grain yield is expected to drop 10%.” The steady climate in which our crops and civilizations evolved is no longer in play. ‘ “The earth turned out to be much more finely tuned than we understood.”
“Think abut the things we want for the world- peace, social justice, programs for women, and children, all those things we devoutly wish for and work for are impossible in a world with 20% fewer caloreis than now, where people are in a more desperate way trying simply to figure out how they’re making it from one day to the next.” Climate change is the factor that human justice, of all kinds, hinges upon.
“Outside today, no matter where you are, the atmosphere is at about 392ppm C02 and rising by about 2 ppm a year. we’re already way too high. That’s why pakistan drowns and texas burns.” It’s also why the world will find themselves starving- unless we do everything we can to do something about it.