Please read the July 20/27 of Time Magazine. Buy a hard copy for further study. Give it to your friends for discussion. There are many other sources of good climate information, but this one issue should be easy for every one of us to find something to relate to.
Then find a way that you can take action. The first critical step here in the United States is to elect a government that will support humanity in battling this crisis.
Two articles are described below. But every page of this issue offers sobering thoughts. And hopefully it can spur you to join us to improve our planet while we can.
2020 Is Our Last, Best Chance to Save the Planet
“… In the future, we may look back at 2020 as the year we decided to keep driving off the climate cliff–or to take the last exit. Taking the threat seriously would mean using the opportunity presented by this crisis to spend on solar panels and wind farms, push companies being bailed out to cut emissions and foster greener forms of transport in cities. If we instead choose to fund new coal-fired power plants and oil wells and thoughtlessly fire up factories to urge growth, we will lock in a pathway toward climate catastrophe. There’s a divide about which way to go.”
By Justin Worland
The US Republican forces came down on the side of supporting the oil industry. In early April, a series of meetings resulted in “a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to cut oil production and rescue the industry.”
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, took the other side of the divide. She announced in April “We can turn the crisis of this pandemic into an opportunity to rebuild our economies differently.” On May 27, she pledged more than $800 billion to the initiative, promising to transform the way Europeans live.
The rest of the world has waited for three years for us to get new leadership with a new position, one that will cooperate with other nations to take the actions we need to prevent the worst ravages of climate change. We are out of time. 2020 is our deadline.
https://time.com/5864692/climate-change-defining-moment/
We’re Handing Our Kids a Damaged Planet. And Our Excuse for Doing Nothing About It Has Now Fallen Apart
We have often been placated with the notion that real change takes time. But this is only true where apathy is its main resistance. Change can come suddenly too.
Western society saw change occur at breakneck speed in the 1950s, when we went from the rationing of World War II to such disposable affluence that planned obsolescence was openly celebrated: buy it cheap, buy it new, keep up with the Joneses. … But the biggest change of the 1950s was that collective selfishness fell upon us. People spent money, and votes, on whatever ticked the “What’s in it for me?” box.
https://time.com/5864674/climate-change-action/
About the cover of this special climate edition
Time Magazine’s new cover is both beautiful and terrifying
“The July 20/27 Time cover was painted by artist and scientist Jill Pelto, who often incorporates scientific research and data into her watercolor paintings. “It has been a tumultuous year, but underlying currents of positive action are surfacing rapidly,” says Pelto on the magazine’s website. “The reality of this data may be frightening, but there are messages for hope within.”
Indeed, not every upward gradient in the painting is designed to be horrifying. While sea level and global temperature are shown to be rising, so too is renewable energy consumption. And C02 emissions even see a sharp decline in 2020, reflecting the “projected 7% drop in 2020” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Above the painting are the words “One last chance: the defining year for the planet”.
– Daniel Piper at https://www.creativebloq.com/news/time-cover-july-2020
Jill Pelto’s promise: “I created a new watercolor painting features on TIME July climate issue!! It depicts a critical grouping of climate data dictating our present and future action. I’ll share the data sources on my website asap (https://t.co/bVClwGfzCR ) https://t.co/pymu4G7ao2 July 9, 2020
– Pat Adams