I’ve been commenting on the social impacts and responses to the evidence for climate change for 5 years. Before that, I toyed with the idea of building a global dashboard on the Web where all the parameters relevant to the warming situation could be checked daily. But things were changing so slowly – I thought then – that a dashboard would look to static to hold anyone’s attention. Today, such a dashboard would be much more dynamic.
Today many many groups have put together programs to influence government and involve fellow citizens by displaying irrefutable evidence of change happening right now, not in the future.
Still a majority of our fellow humans are either unaware of advance of global warming or simply refuse to be concerned about it. Many of those people are unaware of acceptable alternative practices and technologies to what they are used to. They believe the question is, “Will most of humanity choose to go without electric light?”
The question the new greens are asking is, “How do we replace the coal-burning plants to ensure base power needs are met while cutting deeply into CO2 emissions?”
Stewart Brand, launching his new book Whole Earth Discipline, spoke of the need to “rethink green” and accept the lesser of two evils – small, 4th generation nuclear power that has negligible carbon footprint compared to coal plants.
I was part of a very vocal anti-Nuke group in the 70s, before and after Three-mile Island. I did research in the library of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. I was strongly opinionated. But I’ve also seen and been part of huge advances in technology over the past 30 years. And I’m convinced that coal could destroy us.
So, I hope we will all keep an open mind and get our priorities straight. We don’t have time to argue the fine points for years on end. We need to see and stimulate real action and change.
