Yesterday, 20th September 2019 when young people around the world were on strike to urge politicians to start telling the truth about climate emergency and to take action NOW to save their future, I looked out on this view across Cardigan Bay in West Wales. And I thought: isn’t it time we all stopped killing the planet and thus everything we truly value?
On the 23rd September 2019 the United Nations Climate Action Summit takes place. Let’s hope the world leaders attending have their brains switched on. It will cost us a lot otherwise – the earth in fact.
Tish Farrell 
If everyone would just deal with their own trash it would make a big difference.
It would!
Amen Tish…thanks for this. My 14-year-old participated in her first protest on this, yesterday. Proud.
Good girl!
Too many people for the planet to sustain. I fear we may have already pushed the limits.
Not so much the population quantity, I think, but the drive to get everyone shopping and consuming all the time.
There is far too much wastage in modern life. I have never been a big consumer of material goods preferring quality to quantity. But we seem to have ended up in a throwaway world.
Yes, and designed to be throwaway too. That’s the problem with a capitalist model – it only works if production is constantly accelerated and buyers constantly activated.
So the big question is, how do we stop this?
That is a big question. Getting rid of our current government might be a good start.
Fingers crossed that messages are heard – I do believe there is time for important changes to make a difference
Yes, we could achieve so much. We have the technology to get going, now this minute. Big Carbon is fighting back though.
Yeah – it is crazy to imagine the battle and the ignorance connected to greed and possessions
According to the independent Climate Action Tracker, only 7 of the 195 signatories of the Paris Climate Agreement are keeping their greenhouse gas emissions under the 2 degree Celsius warming limit to avoid catastrophic climate change, and only 2 of the 7 are complying with the accord’s optimum 1.5 degree Celsius target. That’s a very dismal success rate of just 3.6%!
It is indeed dismal. I read that carbon emissions have increased by at least 40% since Paris.
Methane and other potent greenhouse gas emissions are rising too. We’re in big trouble.
I went to an Extinction Rebellion meeting recently. The talk was given by an XR member, a consultant aborist. He explained that getting to zero carbon was only half the story. After that, the oceans would begin to release methane which would cause more heating up, but be a shorter-lived event.
Yes, methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but it doesn’t stay in the atmosphere very long. So, CO2 remains the biggest concern.
However, as your speaker pointed out, there are vast stores of CH4 in Arctic permafrost and also within expansive oceanic seabeds in the form of clathrates (i.e. hydrates). As the planet warms up, these reservoirs become unstable and release methane in what climatologists refer to as a “positive feedback loop.”
During the volcanically-caused Permian extinction event 252 million years ago (a.k.a. “The Great Dying”), the planet warmed sufficiently to trigger a massive release of methane which devastated the biosphere. What scientists aren’t quite sure about is at what temperature point that might occur again. I guess we’re destined to find out… the hard way.
Looks that way.
Yes, let’s keep our fingers crossed that they switch their brains – and their hearts! – on. Too many politicians are also business men and women and profit is their only goal. 😯
Yes, I agree, and am beginning to see that UK politics seems to be run by lobbyists and big donors.
I think all politics are, not just the one in the UK. 😦
😦
Our Prime Minister is not attending. That says something.
So dispiriting, Tracy.
Very.
I hope The Summit is a success for the environment.
Indeed, let’s hope so.
Yes!
A beautiful photograph reminding us of how magnificent hour planet is….and yes we must all stand up and be counted. Thank you, Tish.
Thank you for that thought, Janet.
Thank you Tish for such a beautiful image…Let’s hope the Summit is a success – it has to be…Janet
stunning view . . . and yes we need them to act now if we are to keep views like this
We do need them to act.
We must act now, but maybe it’s too late
I’m inclining to that thought too – about it being too late. Thanks, Gottfried.
Keep up the good work Tish.
Thank you. Lovely of you to say that. Have just spent the day pestering my Member of Parliament and town mayor on climate emergency issues.
If more people held those in power accountable, the world will be a better place. Most will rather be passengers though.
That is so very true.
“Switched on”? That would assume they do have brains?
That is a good point, Brian.
😉