It’s weird when cranky right wing people, like the Nigel Farage owned Reform Party, spread doubt on the validity of the fact of climate change. They act as if there’s some kind scientific debate about it. Spoiler alert: there isn’t. Climate change is happening and today there is also no doubt as to who is causing it: we are.
Richard Tice, the millionaire businessman who is the notional leader of Reform – we all know that Farage is the real leader in all but name – doesn’t even understand the difference between weather and climate in a kind of, “How can climate change be happening when it was freezing in some places last winter?” kind of way. These experts, eh? Such a nuisance.
I’m no angel in this. I want to drive and fly to different places and in so doing, I am doing my bit to make planet less habitable, until one day, probably some time in the next century there will be extreme weather events every day and the normal we feel today will feel unattainable. Still, who cares? We’ll all be dead come the next century. Let’s enjoy life while we can, right, and hang the consequences?
Well, yes. That’s what we are doing already. After all, neither our children, their children and their children’s children will have to endure the worst of what’s to come. Their children’s children’s children won’t be that lucky.
The scientific projections are terrifying. According to the Guardian: “Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating above preindustrial levels,, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit will be met.” It adds: “2.5C (4.5F) this century (would cause) catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet … (causing) famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.”
Ah yes, but these are just scare stories, argue the sceptics. The worst case scenarios. No. They are projections based on actual evidence. None of the “it’s nothing to worry about: it’s just weather” naysayers bother with evidence because when it comes to their ‘arguments’, there isn’t any.
In 75 years or so, Earth will not be in a bit of a mess: it will be in a lot of a mess. That is unless we do something about it. And we are already doing something about it, albeit far slower than we should be. Gradually, we are beginning to phase out the use of fossil fuels, which are a huge driver of climate change. We may enjoy our gas guzzling, heavily polluting 4X4s and RVs, along with our frequent flights abroad but – and I include me in this – we can hardly proclaim our love for the environment if we don’t at least start to change the way in which we live. We love our children and grandchildren but the children and grandchildren to come, well maybe not so much.
It’s hard to think beyond our own lives, especially when we are hurtling to the end of them, but I am sure we want our children and grandchildren to live on a sustainable planet, closer to today’s version of normal than to tomorrow’s likely dystopia.
And to make the planet sustainable we need world leaders to make it happen. Not the so-called alt right, led by the likes of Trump in America and pretty well the entire Conservative party in the UK, as well as right wing fringe cranks like Reform.
If science is united in its view that climate change is happening, then we would do well to listen. The alternative is to believe the anti-science brigade who either don’t understand the science or wilfully ignore it. In the case of many, it’s both.
Do I understand all the science? Of course not. If I did, I’d probably be a scientist. But do I believe what the vast majority of scientists in the world are telling me? I’d be mad not to. And so, I’m afraid, would you.
