Global warming, pollution, biodiversity loss, and humans.
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It seems like every week there’s another record-breaking weather event: never-seen-before temperatures, rains, or winds. Weather-related devastation at scales or in places that were unprecedented. Floods, droughts, tornadoes, wild-fires. Earth is developing a fever. Even the ocean is getting warmer and more acidic.
Dr. Adam Fenech (PhD, Environmental Science) has spent three decades at the front-line of this problem … writing climate policy speeches for federal environment ministers … representing Canada in front of United Nations climate panels (remember COP26?) … and speaking to intergovernmental panels and universities around the world.
He knows climate change.
And what causes it: humans … well, humans producing greenhouse gases.
After getting the 101 on climate change (definitions; how it’s measured; what are the root causes), we talked about four worldviews or ideas that need to be adjusted:
(1) “the solution for pollution is dilution” An old saying, but how many people still get rid of waste by flushing it down the toilet, pouring it in the sewer drains, tossing it into a river, or burning it?
(2) “GDP growth is necessary”. Much of the pollution in the world is a by-product of capitalism, convenience and consumerism. You convince yourself that you “need” to have the newest phone or computer, so you have Amazon courier it from China to your front door step … within three days.
(3) carbon trading. This doesn’t reduce the problem … it just prolongs it. We need to reduce.
(4) apathy. “The problem is too big, and I can’t do anything to make a substantial dent in it”. As Boyd put it: “Well, we may be going to hell in a hand-basket, but I can’t do anything about it, so let’s just enjoy the ride”. But tell me, what’s a bigger number: one times a billion, or a billion times ten? Sure, we can point to this billionaire or that country who are making the biggest dent on the environment (or who need to make the the biggest cash infusion to solve it); but if a billion of us nobodies each made a small dent (or paid a small price) we could collectively make a much bigger impact. Don’t quit making those small changes.
At the end of the show, we barely scratched the surface on high-tech approaches to solving the climate crisis problem: seeding the skies with particles to create a mini nuclear winter … position giant sun-screens the size of tennis courts somewhere between Earth and the sun to reduce solar input. But this is like solving a weight control problem using liposuction rather than a lifestyle change.
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Learn more about Adam Fenech and his work.
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