Climate Change

Let’s talk about Climate Change. If you have joined the Challenge for Earth and are working to reduce your garbage, then I consider that you are a very responsible person with the environment, you are interested in taking care of our planet and the other animal species.

I would like to tell you that the Challenge for Earth is much more than a lifestyle. We need to support movements that aim at stabilizing our climate. Crisis means opportunity and we must act with our heads and hearts.

If you have reached this point I would like to tell you that our planet is experiencing a Climate Changee caused by fossil fuels. The big oil companies have dominated our energy system for centuries. The problem of Climate Change has been known since the 60s but the ambition for the power of the big oil companies (not to lose their gasoline business and a whole system created by oil) caused this critical point of the Climate Crisis. Australia’s mega-fire is one example of this. We must act and know that we are more than consumers, we are citizens of the planet.

The Science behind the Climate Change is clear

The University of Calgary and the Oil Sands.

I studied at the University of Calgary in Canada a specialized course on Climate Change and Geological Ages in 2009. I visited the glaciers in the Rocky Mountains as part of the classes and watched with sadness as the glaciers melt decade after decade. But that was not what saddened me the most, what really struck me at that time was the indifference of the researchers.

They knew the Science behind Climate Change and yet they still didn’t protest. They were just investigating. I asked an expert researcher on Climate Change directly if he did not felt fear about what was coming, or what his feelings were about it, and he told me that extinctions like that had already happened on Earth.

That it was something that we could not change because it would be impossible to stop the ambition of the oil companies. However, what really terrified me was the waste of resources in Canada. Indigenous Canadians were protesting against this devastation, putting bombs on oil and gas lines, and no one was listening. No one was going to stop that oil industry and the ambition of all the workers at Fort McMurray and all oil canadian companies like EnCana. Since then I have been worried about the then Climate Change.

My exchange in Holland and the teacher from SHELL (the Dutch Oil Company). I decided to study a master’s degree to specialize in renewable energy and work towards solving Climate Change. It was when I really became aware of the then Climate Change, during an academic exchange at the University of Utrecht. In 2013, just coming out of a Climate Change class, where I had just delivered an essay on climate I was again mortified by the climate statistics. The conclusions for me were crystal clear. Science is clear, we need to act. But as always, the same indifference from the Researchers and their “More research is needed” speech. Those were the conclusions of all the courses on climate change back then.

I hope this is not the case now.

The scariest thing was about to come next. Immediately after that Climate Change class, I went to a Renewable Energy class. That day the professor was a former CEO of SHELL (the Dutch Oil Company). The statistics he presented showed a massive increase in fossil fuel sales. Nothing was going to stop them from fossil fuels. They were completely bleak statistics. They weren’t going to stop at anything. They expected the sale of gasoline and fossil fuels to skyrocket by 2030. And no one protested, no one said anything. As if that was something normal.

At the end of the class, I approached the teacher directly. I asked him if he didn’t feel any regrets about Climate Change. I told him if he did not care about the fate of his children, his grandchildren, or the polar bears, or our planet. And that said no. He replied that this is what business ethics is like. That is how the economy works and that is the logic of Business Men. That they already knew about the climate issue but they didn’t care. they to had to make tough decisions and climate change was one of them.

Working on mitigating and not adapting

Nothing was going to stop those big oil companies on our planet. Much less because the Netherlands Economy depends on fossil fuels and gas sales. In fact, the curriculum of studies at my university was already plagued by measures to adapt to climate change.

Adaptation is like saying we’re already surrendering. That there’s nothing we can do.

Adaptation is what happens in Holland, where they are already preparing to build more dams by increasing the sea, rather than stopping the oil companies.

How to know the level of emissions?

Check the emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The Science of Climate Change is very clear. To maintain life on Earth and stabilize the climate, we need CO2 emissions to stay below 350 ppm. You can find more information here at the 350.org organization.

The 350 ppm is a figure agreed upon by climate scientists. However, at this point, we are already at 411 ppm. The more we let time pass, the effects are magnified, they are called Feedback Mechanisms.

1. The hotter the Earth heats up, the mechanisms are devastating. For example, the melting of ice at the poles in Greenland. Methane contained in the soil from the Permafrost of Russia and Canada is released into the atmosphere and temperatures rise. The hotter, the more temperatures and the more methane and the hotter.

2. Another mechanism is forest fires. The more forest fires, the more carbon in the atmosphere. The more carbon the more temperature. We need to act now. To check the emissions and how much CO2 exists in the atmosphere you can view the statistics in the Earth Systems Research Laboratory. This a way in which we can know how the climate is on our planet in a scientific way.

What can we do to stop Climate Change?

Get involved in your government’s decision-making.

You’re a citizen, you’re not just a consumer.

We need to work for life and express our concern for Earth and all species. Get involved in your government’s public policies. We can’t keep extracting oil, we can’t bury garbage, we can’t keep ignoring the problem.

I understand we all have a life, but we must also know that we are part of this planet.

Join the European Fashion to Avoid Flying. People who are interested in climate protection minimize their flights. They have decided not to fly for ethical reasons and prefer to protect the planet before boarding a plane. They prefer to travel by train, bicycle or other vehicle. I invite you to add your organization not to fly.

Alternatives:

Use Zoom, Google Hang Outs or Skype and get used to your organization to Video Conferencing.