What’s a tipping point? Definition: The point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger important change.
Over the past few weeks there’s been lots of news on different weather extreme events, such as the Heat Dome over the north western Canada, wild fires and droughts in Califonia and devastating floods in europe especially Germany. earlier in the year the Winter Vortex in Texas causing severe cold weather conditions and electricity shortages.
I could go on but we all now realise we have an extential threat to ourselves and our social and economic existance (Take covid pandemic as an example) But the realisation things are far worse with planet earth biosphere? Will it able to support life in the future? What concerns me is the acceleration of climatic conditions or extreme weather events.
Whats causing this is the byproduct of the daily use of fossil fuels and with us pumping 43 billion tons of CO2 per year into the atmosphere from all human activity. Its absolutely collossal! But this is being pumped into the atmosphere and oceans year in and year out since we started burning fossil fuels 250 years ago from 1750 since the start of the industrial revolution, so its cumlative effect which has been driven by population growth and the captalist system. As the greatest landmass is in the northern hemisphere that’s heating up more quickly than the southern hemisphere.
In many ways the industrialised nations are being effected the most by hot house earth. What has particulary dismayed me is how we’ve addressed the Covid pandemic over the past 18 months? The number of covid deaths has been over 4 million world wide and the most advanced nations such as the US and the UK have done poorly 625,000 deaths in the US, 130,000 deaths in the UK. So if we can’t protect our citzens from covid what chance have we over the climate threat?
Who or what do I blame? It’s captalism and the economic social model that doesn’t work for all humanity, only for the few as opposed to the many? That’s why we have this problem its the root cause. That’s why we had a stupid freedom day when covid is still ripping through the UK population. It’s not about the safety and well being of the people but about profit which drives our society? But unfortunately money isn’t going to save us from catastrophe of climate breakdown, because its the cause and not the solution!
From time immemorial man has exploited land people and resources. He’s fought over and colonised them and put humans into servitude and even exterminated them, what for to exploit gold, silver, fur, spices, sugar, rubber coffee, tobacco, cotton, coal, diamonds, oil and gas, who’s one objective is to accrue capital and wealth. So why would this economic social system change? Today its digital resources and information technology, now we have social media spreading disinformation. Which is causing mass mental psychosis. ( Serious mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired and contact is lost with external reality )
For me covid has brought out a frightening problem of the many in our populations thinking that the covid is a hoax and so is the vaccine with these people living in a parallel mental universe. Who perpetuates this mass psychosis but the holders of capital and production. The people who deny climate change, like the tabacco industry, the sugar industry, the drug industry, alcohol industry and the process foods industry. Capitalists who deny these are detrimental to our health and well being? It’s the capitalists who make us both mentally and physically ill.
Before we get to grips with the climate we have to change the economic and social structures. I fear we won’t do that? Because capitalism is so heavily entrenched in our poltical systems, there are too many vasted interests, so we march on to the edge of the precipice of the captalists making!
Now this blog post of mine might seem radical but it’s what I see about me in many stark ways, not only with the climate crises issue but the health and well being of my fellow humans not forgetting all other species that will be effected as equally as us humans. Will we wake up from our psycotic slumber I doubt it? I leave the last words from the great scientist communicator Carl Sagan.
More on a positive note we live on a unique planet with such breath taking beauty surely we must all realise this deep down so why would we destroy the thing that gives us life just for money? What a crazy paradox?