Our work and efforts to reduce and mitigate the climate crisis have been made very much more difficult by the election of the republican climate denier Donald Trump.
The Kyoto protocol, the UN agreement to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and defined (agreed) individual country targets for reductions, was established in 1997. The republican president George Bush refused to ratify this treaty. The Paris agreement of 2015 (“COP21”) supplemented (although effectively replaced) Kyoto but on 1June 2017 President Trump withdrew the USA from the Paris agreement during his first term of presidency. Both presidents were concerned at the impact on the US economy, and in particular their fossil fuel industries, and are what can be described as climate sceptics (I am being kind in my choice of words).
The world has, almost entirely, done nothing to materially affect the rate of climate change nor prepare for its effects. For example, within the UK we have a serious issue with sewerage discharges from combined sewer overflows polluting our rivers and marine environments. Increased rainfall, which we have been seeing, will just exacerbate this problem. We are effectively doing nothing about this.
The climate crisis is real
We have seen increased frequency and strength of hurricanes across the world (driven by the increases in sea temperatures) and extreme rainfall events in for example Spain, France and Saudi Arabia. The climate crisis is real, is anthropologically caused, and it will get worse. We need as a species to both redouble of efforts in both reducing and mitigating it. We must address head-on the reasons why we are not doing what is needed.
The election of President Trump bodes badly for this. But the UK is also criminally remiss. The recent budget by the new Labour government did nothing to help. A crisis is becoming more severe day by day. I’m very pessimistic that COP29 in Azerbaijan, starting next week, will deliver anything approaching what we need.
What should we do?
So should we retract, look after our own, sort ourselves out and let the inevitable happen? Well, not me for one! We cannot afford the luxury of giving up, and neither can our children. We must renew our efforts. Whilst most of us feel that what we can do is insignificant, millions of people making small changes can and will make a difference. I’ve previously drafted some ideas as to what we each individually can do.
Please, for the sake of both future generations and ourselves, don’t give up. Redouble your effectors, continue to reduce our individual contributions. Make a difference. For us and our children.
