Saving Our Planet: A Mindset Shift, Not a Technical Exercise
Scientists, who are now angry and frustrated with being ignored, are calling for large-scale holistic change – to our mindsets, economy, and societies. If we want to avoid global catastrophe, the time for action is now!
Climate change is no longer a scientific theory for the future – it is around us, and it is now. The World Scientists Warning of a Climate Emergency paper[1] - which has been endorsed by a total of 14,236 scientists from 156 countries – identified six priority areas for global action. The latest updated paper, World Scientists Warning into Action, takes this one step further with specific recommendations of actions that can, and must, be taken to mitigate the various climate change risks associated with each priority area. These areas cannot be acted on in a fragmented way. This work must be holistic and multi-faceted.
This summary of the latest Warning gives you an overview of the actions we can demand from our leaders and some we can undertake independently; as individuals and communities.
A Fairer Economy
Economists globally are proposing the tracking of GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) rather than GDP. GPI tracks net benefits reaped from unpaid labour, green and renewable energies, built infrastructure and the economic and social advancements stemming from education, rather than only measuring money spent – whether it creates social improvement or not. Some nations have started to incorporate this measurement, and this is something that must be adopted more widely. Alongside this, taxation needs to be adjusted for social and environmental cost, subsidies for harmful practices must be halted and we need far more investment in local production.
Renewables and Reductions
Our complex society requires huge amounts of energy to run it, and this requirement shows no signs of slowing down. Whilst the availability of renewable energy sources is increasing, it is nowhere near enough to make a significant dent in our escalating consumption. Subsequently, we must improve our energy efficiency and conservation. Relocalisation, using ideas like Parisian Mayor Anne Hildago’s 15 minute city[2], working from home, as well as retrofitting buildings with thermal and draught insulation can help us make massive energy savings, alongside the increased use of renewables.
Empathetic Population Control
We are in ecological overshoot. We are currently a planet of 7.9bil people and adding an extra 80 million – the population of Germany – every year. All these people need clean air, water, food, and shelter. We have it within our power to bend the global population curve – without demonising those who have larger families but rather with the promotion of the benefits of smaller families in developing nations, as well as increased investment in women’s education and voices – educated women have fewer children[3]. This requires an absolute but urgent mindset shift.
Food Security
Currently, we are using nature 1.7 times faster than our planet’s biocapacity can regenerate. Food supplies are already being affected by longer and more extreme weather conditions and the number of undernourished people in the world is rising. There is hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of halving food waste by 2050[4] as well as setting aside 30% of land and water by 2030 to protect biodiversity[5]. Switching to lower impact foods is important, but alongside this farming practices must become more regenerative and less environmentally degrading.
Courageous Leadership is the Future
Business as usual isn’t working. Collaboration, awareness, support and pressure from those who can influence decisions are all needed. We can no longer tolerate leaders who keep kicking the can down the road. We need people in charge who are willing and ready to stand up for change and willing to be flexible and creative with solutions, as well as prepared to hold polluters accountable. History will remember the action or inaction of individuals and will look back and wonder what took us so long.
Conservation and Restoration
Whilst afforestation (planting new forests) has a part to play in capturing carbon, proforestation (purposefully growing existing forests intact toward their full ecological potential) will have a much larger impact. Reducing the harvest of public lands by half would accumulate 10 times the carbon by 2100 as planting trees now[6]. For the past 60 years, natural ecosystems have removed 56% of all atmospheric CO2 added to the atmosphere by human actions[7] so we need these ecosystems, coastal mangroves, and marshes. Action must be taken to reduce, and then halt, habitat transformation by 2030, remove pollutants from habitats and restore prioritised critical habitats. Bioenergy should no longer be subsidized due to the carbon burden and air pollution.
Fig. 1 A US example of the collaborative municipal natural climate solutions emphasizing the value of saving mature trees in carbon terms. Credits as above.
Where do we go from here?
A colossal task sits ahead of us. But we have the capacity to deal with it. The biggest challenges are less technical than social – we need to take the necessary actions quickly enough. And as much as we will see changes in our societies - and these processes of change are always a challenge – the hardest part of the task is making the choice: the choice to demonstrate the best of our human nature; cooperative, innovative, wise and ethical.
It is time to ask ourselves: “What kind of a society do we want to have now? And how do we get there from here?”
Scientists Warning Europe are promoting the signing of the latest climate emergency paper - if you have any post-grad degree in any science, please read and sign the paper at: https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/signature
[1] Ripple WJ, Wolf C, Newsome TM, Barnard, Moomaw WR and 14,236 scientist signatories from 158 countries. World scientists’ warning of a climate emergency. BioScience 2020;70(1):8-12. https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806
[3] Female education and its impact on fertility, Kim, Jungho, Ajou University, Republic of Korea and IZA, Germany
[4] https://www.foodlogistics.com/sustainability/waste-reduction/press-release/21196213/food-retailers-and-providers-engage-nearly-200-suppliers-in-cutting-food-loss-and-waste-in-half
[5] https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/ecosystems-and-biodiversity/what-we-do/decade-ecosystem-restoration
[6] Law BE, Hudiburg TW, Berner LT, Kent JJ, Buotte PC, Harmon ME. Land use strategies to mitigate climate change in carbon dense temperate forests. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2018;115:3663–3668. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1720064115
[7] IPCC. Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [Shukla PR, Skea J, Calvo Buendia E, Masson-Delmotte V, Pörtner H-O, Roberts DC, Zhai P, Slade R, Connors S, van Diemen R, Ferrat M, Haughey E, Luz S, Neogi S, Pathak M, Petzold J, Portugal Pereira J, Vyas P, Huntley E, Kissick K, Belkacemi M, Malley J (eds.)], 2019. IPCC. Technical Summary [Pörtner H-O, Roberts DC, Masson-Delmotte V, Zhai P, Poloczanska E, Mintenbeck K, Tignor M, Alegría A, Nicolai M, Okem A, Petzold J, Rama B, Weyer NM (eds.)]. In: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [Pörtner H-O, Roberts DC, Masson-Delmotte V, Zhai P, Tignor M, Poloczanska E, Mintenbeck K, Alegría A, Nicolai M, Okem A, Petzold J, Rama B, Weyer NM (eds.)], 2019