Terms of engagement

There is no danger of climate change, the damage has already been done. You can forget about being sustainable or going green too. Global warming is a sham, a vapid, empty promise of a future that will never be.
This is not to say that our environment is not in peril, but we shouldn’t be calling it global warming.
Words can be powerful weapons. The words that we choose to describe our struggles often define how the masses will react. It is the difference between “Quebec nationalism” and “separatism” or “the Mid-East Peace Process” and “Israeli Apartheid.”
When the first International Panel on Climate Change published its report on the potential dangers of anthropogenic climate change nearly twenty years ago, global warming was an appropriate term.
But terms like “green’ and “sustainable’ have become more akin to marketing or public relations strategies than to an honest commitment to change.
Bottom line: None of these terms live up to the real dangers of living in a future where humanity does not embrace and understand our relationship with the environment.
Survival is the only word that is up to the task, because what we are talking about is preserving life as we know it on this planet.
The natural systems that are commonly referred to as the Earth’s climate have been altered and it is our fault.
Unfortunately, without a tidal wave crashing into the Statue of Liberty or some other Hollywood style disaster, reality will not been shocking enough to encourage real action.

The dangerous ramifications of the global shift in Earth’s climate currently underway are much more insidious, slowly eroding the natural systems that sustain our existence.

Previously fertile regions of the world are undergoing desertification at an alarming rate, placing the food supply of billions at risk. At the most recent meeting of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification executive secretary Luc Gnacadja said that if we cannot find a solution to this problem right now, in 2025 close to 70 per cent of the planet’s soil could be affected by drought and desertification.
Predictions by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have predicted that by that same time Africa will only be able to feed 40 per cent of its population through agriculture.
In the cradle of human civilization, the flow of the Euphrates river has become dramatically reduced, leading zealots to reference the biblical prediction of the end of days.
The terminology we use to describe situations directly affects the response that another human being will have to that situation. Global warming might seem like a positive thing to anyone waiting for the bus in a Montreal snowstorm.
Climate change is a concept of the past. The climate has changed, now is the time to take action and work towards a future where subsequent generations will not be forced to fight for scraps of food, or build artificial islands to keep their heads above water.
The Earth has a miraculous capacity to regenerate, but humanity’s capacity for destruction must first be put in check before the damage gets beyond our control.

In the words of environmental activist and author Edward Abbey it is “better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.” And the truth is that no matter what our government believes is politically or economically viable, survival is non-negotiable.

There is no danger of climate change, the damage has already been done. You can forget about being sustainable or going green too. Global warming is a sham, a vapid, empty promise of a future that will never be.
This is not to say that our environment is not in peril, but we shouldn’t be calling it global warming.
Words can be powerful weapons. The words that we choose to describe our struggles often define how the masses will react. It is the difference between “Quebec nationalism” and “separatism” or “the Mid-East Peace Process” and “Israeli Apartheid.”
When the first International Panel on Climate Change published its report on the potential dangers of anthropogenic climate change nearly twenty years ago, global warming was an appropriate term.
But terms like “green’ and “sustainable’ have become more akin to marketing or public relations strategies than to an honest commitment to change.
Bottom line: None of these terms live up to the real dangers of living in a future where humanity does not embrace and understand our relationship with the environment.
Survival is the only word that is up to the task, because what we are talking about is preserving life as we know it on this planet.
The natural systems that are commonly referred to as the Earth’s climate have been altered and it is our fault.
Unfortunately, without a tidal wave crashing into the Statue of Liberty or some other Hollywood style disaster, reality will not been shocking enough to encourage real action.

The dangerous ramifications of the global shift in Earth’s climate currently underway are much more insidious, slowly eroding the natural systems that sustain our existence.

Previously fertile regions of the world are undergoing desertification at an alarming rate, placing the food supply of billions at risk. At the most recent meeting of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification executive secretary Luc Gnacadja said that if we cannot find a solution to this problem right now, in 2025 close to 70 per cent of the planet’s soil could be affected by drought and desertification.
Predictions by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have predicted that by that same time Africa will only be able to feed 40 per cent of its population through agriculture.
In the cradle of human civilization, the flow of the Euphrates river has become dramatically reduced, leading zealots to reference the biblical prediction of the end of days.
The terminology we use to describe situations directly affects the response that another human being will have to that situation. Global warming might seem like a positive thing to anyone waiting for the bus in a Montreal snowstorm.
Climate change is a concept of the past. The climate has changed, now is the time to take action and work towards a future where subsequent generations will not be forced to fight for scraps of food, or build artificial islands to keep their heads above water.
The Earth has a miraculous capacity to regenerate, but humanity’s capacity for destruction must first be put in check before the damage gets beyond our control.

In the words of environmental activist and author Edward Abbey it is “better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.” And the truth is that no matter what our government believes is politically or economically viable, survival is non-negotiable.

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