A WORLD ABOVE 1.5 Degrees
Dear grandchild 2300,
I will keep this short.
Yesterday, scientists concluded that our world experienced the first year in recorded history when global temperatures exceeded the 1.5 0C limit above pre-industrial levels. The world had set that goal limit about ten years ago in 2015, when we reached the remarkable Paris Climate Agreement.
During these past 12 climate historical months, our world, nations, and even communities have experienced firsthand some early signs of life above 1.5o C;
·????????12,000 people - 30% more than in 2022 - died in floods, wildfires, cyclones, storms, and landslides globally in 2023 (RW, 2023).
·????????In my adopted country, the U.S., we experienced 28 separate weather and climate disasters costing at least 1 billion dollars, putting 2023 into first place for the highest number of billion-dollar disasters in a calendar year (NOAA, 2024).
But what does a world look like at a more personal community level? In my adopted hometown of Flint, Michigan – in early summer 2023, the week of June 08, 2023, we experienced for the first time air that was considered too hazardous to breathe with an Air Quality Index above 370 (> 301 is considered hazardous). No one was spared, rich or poor. You would be relatively fine if you worked indoors and in air-conditioned offices. But I thought a lot about my brothers and sisters here in Flint who are homeless or have to work outdoors on construction projects or our men and women in uniform who have to patrol our streets to keep us all safe.
The good news is that we know so much today, more than ever before, about the solutions to all these challenges. We know what needs to be done at the global, national, and community levels. There are tons of scientific and non-scientific reports on what we can do to quickly reduce emissions of green house gas emissions that cause climate change, but also various ways we can adapt to observed and expected impacts of climate change. An excellent place to start is #Project Drawdown. We know what to do, but our hearts are not yet there, for our global, national, and community actions are still not well aligned to reducing carbon emissions at the rate and levels necessary to avoid the most dangerous impacts of global climate change.
领英推荐
In the meantime, as we await for all things to align, at a personal level – I continue to move the needle at a personal level, one day at a time, always doing the best I can to advance climate solutions within my sphere of control and influence. It may not seem like a lot, but it matters. I am reminded by the words of my namesake, Robert F. Kennedy, who during a speech at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (June 06, 1966), noted as follows;
“…First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills – against [climate change], misery,… injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements of thought and action have flowed from the work of a single person... It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These men [and women] moved the world, and so can we all…” And so can you my grandchild in 2300, and so can I in 2024…
Keep the faith.
Great Grandpa. Robert D