“We basically have three choices: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. We’re going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be.” – John Holdren, President’s Science advisor, Harvard University
Last Sunday in “We’re Gonna Be Sorry,” New York Times op-ed columnist, Tom Friedman, quoted from the July newsletter of hedge fund manager Jeremy Grantham, who tells investors “global warming is a classic tragedy of the commons” and asks why we are even arguing the issue anymore. Grantham writes:
“ … the fossil energy companies, driven by the need to protect hundreds of billions of dollars of profits, encourage obfuscation of the inconvenient scientific results. I, for one, admire them for their P.R. skills, while wondering, as always: “Have they no grandchildren?”
And there’s the nut of the issue. This is the future of our children and grandchildren we’re talking about. A child born today will be 40 years old in 2050, in the prime of their life, and unless we change drastically, they’ll be living on a planet that’s crowded and hot and most likely short on a wide range of resources we now take for granted – including the basics such as food and potable water. It could be literally hell on earth.
A few weeks ago I wrote about climate change in “Welcome to the new usual,” and promised to address mitigation and adaption strategies. The first strategy is simple – take responsibility for your future and that of those you love. Take the future into your hands as though it is a soft mass of moldable clay (and it is) and educate yourself pronto on how to shape it for yourself and for the common good because if you don’t understand the problem, you won’t be able to address what needs to be done in your own home, much less anywhere else. Once you understand what’s happening, then you can begin to act.
I submit three simple places to start.
1. “The Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience,” by Rob Hopkins. Rooted in his Permaculture background (Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human settlements), Rob takes a measured look at the daunting issues of climate change, declining supplies of cheap, easily produced energy, and economic instability and applies sensible creativity and practical mojo. A lot of books on these topics bog down in buzz words, jargon, dense analysis or academic punditry, and in the process they often shortchange readers on solutions. The Transition Handbook bypasses those pitfalls with accessible language, and then spends as much time on a framework for solutions as it does on explaining the issues, envisioning a nourishing and abundant future without fossil fuel dependency. And you just can’t beat the enthusiastic, “yes we can” attitude that pervades the book.
2. Rob’s blog, transitionculture.org, continues the work of “Transition Handbook” in real time. Stay connected with what’s being done around the world and to pertinent news and information useful in a personal or community journey.
3. Katharine Hayhoe’s slide show. Hayhoe is a highly respected expert on climate change, and a reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She knows her stuff! The full slide show is the best I’ve seen at quickly explaining what climate change is, the challenges it poses, and she also manages to debunk every silly denier myth out there. In short, she rocks.
Next strategy: Be a sensible hero. Coming soon.
