NEWS AND COMMENT: The good news for Brits is that the UK leads developed nations on curbing global warming but the world at large is failing on climate change. Plenty of big, bold words from leaders but nowhere near enough action. If you don’t believe in global warming caused by human activity you don’t believe in pretty well all the scientists who now agree that climate change is real and will be devastating. All current animal welfare issues will pale into insignificance unless the world’s nations step up and commit to radical changes in curbing climate change gases.
There has been a lot of news media on extreme weather devastating nature and the animals who make forests their home. The Australian and Californian fires are good examples. Most of the talk is how these fires and floods affect people but let’s think of the domestic and wild animals too.
The estimated 3 billion (not a typo, that is a ‘b’ not an ‘m’) animals recently harmed or killed in in the Australia’s forest fires come to mind. And what about the mountain lions of California? Are they coping with the persistent and ever more catastrophic forest fires? The domestic cats and dogs who lost their lives in California’s annual forest fires are small fry compared to the number of cats and dogs killed at shelters but they are a forecast of much worse to come unless there is radical change. Countries must cut 20 billion-to-23 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by the end of this decade.
Niklas Höhne, of NewClimate Institute said:
“Governments have now closed the gap by up to 15%, a minimal improvement since May. Anyone would think they have all the time in the world, when in fact the opposite is the case.”
The reports today paint a bleak and depressing picture. Governments talk about it in big, high-profile conferences. They make bold promises and they clap each other at the end of hard discussions such as at the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Remember the world’s leaders standing up and clapping themselves for their achievements? Words not action. They don’t want to walk the walk.
News today is that just one country, Gambia, is on course to meet 1.5C target. And I severely doubt if Gambia is making real efforts. It is just that their industry is undeveloped. The chart above tells us that the UK leads developed nations in taking genuine steps to curb greenhouse gases.
China and America are the most damaging nations. Trump lost four years of American progress because he did not believe in global warming. China have promised carbon neutrality by 2050 and in the meantime go on building coal fired power stations to burn coal imported from Australia. China and Australia are partners in crime. They lack commitment because they place immediate commercial advantage over protecting the planet for generations to come.
Sir David Attenborough said that humankind need to act now; today not tomorrow, such as indicated in the long-range forecasts and plans of China.
All the efforts at wildlife conservation will be at naught unless nations take global warming seriously. Momentum has slowed in terms of commitment and taking tangible steps in cubing greenhouses gases.
P.S. While the planet passively gears up for extreme weather due to global warming humankind is also choking the planet with plastic:
- 1,000 particles of plastic per cubic metre of sea water in Atlantic Ocean
- Eleven billion tons of plastic will be in the environment by 2025
SOME ARTICLES CONCERNED WITH GLOBAL WARMING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY:
