Blog Action Day - Climate Action: There’s Still Time

We human beings are about to make the most critical decision we’ve ever made. No, this is not a promotion for some product that will make our hair less frizzy.

World representatives and leaders are meeting in Copenhagen this December to chart course on how best to dodge a bullet. More than 95 percent of climatologists and biologists who study climate change are very clear. If we don’t drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions we will commit our biosphere to runaway global warming.

How bad is runaway global warming? Imagine the torturous demise of our biosphere and you’ll get a pretty good idea. Species that can’t tolerate even the slightest change in their climate will die off, as will the species that depend on them for their survival and so on right up the food chain. Coastal flooding and other frequent natural disasters, and the mass migration they will instigate, will be the least of our worries. Viruses and parasites will flourish. Disease and death will be widespread.

This is depressing. It could be far worse. Imagine the following:

It’s 2020. The world is not on target to meet emissions targets that scientists warn will stave off runaway global warming. World reps signed off on a watered down treaty in Copenhagen way back in 2009. By now killer weather-related disasters are more frequent, parts of Africa are uninhabitable, and the pine beetle has devastated great swaths of the Boreal forest, as have oil companies to get at the tar sands. The summer arctic ice is now gone, glacial ice that millions depend on for their water supply is quickly disappearing and country-size chunks of ice are breaking off of Greenland and the Antarctic and melting into the ocean. The global fishing industry is on the point of collapse.

It’s only going to get worse. And you know it. What do you tell your kids? There is nothing you or anyone else can do to stop it. It’s too late.

It’s 2009. There’s still time.

Fight for this. Fight hard. Give it all you’ve got. You are living on planet earth during the most critical time in human history. World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen this December to set a course. What will it be? Commitment to developing a green and sustainable economy or more investment in the carbon economy? ‘Growth’ at all costs?

Thousands of us are converging on Parliament Hill on October 24th for C-Day: Fill the Hill, Canada’s largest rally on climate action and one of 1700 events coordinated by 350.org that day. Join us. Be one of hundreds of thousands of citizens worldwide who are sending a clear message to their leaders. We want fair, binding and ambitious targets on greenhouse gas emissions. Write to your MP. Sign the KYOTOplus petition. For more visit www.climateday.ca.

Part of Blog Action Day - www.blogactionday.org