Climate Change and “What Will it Take”

Posted on by Fiona MacLeod

13th May 2019

Climate Change and “What Will it Take”

I saw a few minutes of ‘The Drum’ on Friday night just gone by and the subject of effective action regarding climate change was being discussed and the ‘push-back effect’.

Firstly, I think there are those people who unconsciously think of our planet as machine-like, ie, it will just continue as it always has and any changes due to human activities will be incremental and gradual and because of this, they are lulled into a false sense of security. We really all have to realise that this planet is not a machine. (Like a car that we can repair if it breaks down or that gives a flashing red light when oil is low type thing.) I thought of an analogy that most people will relate to…. When we get cold and out temperature keeps dropping, the involuntary act of shivering kicks in and this is part of our protection, just like when we get an infected cut and our immune system kicks in to attend to it.

This planet also has steps to protect itself and we really need to comprehend this. In our few centuries of industrialisation we have become so accustomed to our way of life that we are a bit numb and detached.
We are now, in a sense, gambling with our planet, like the gold miner who knows his mine has become un-safe but he can’t stop going in and extracting more gold. He feels that gold is his and the thought of leaving it there just isn’t something that makes sense to the miner. We can see he should close the mine but he’s wealthy and has gold fever and is blinded by that and so he ignores the danger. And a question to ask ourselves is, were we the mine owner would we too continue to go into that unsafe mine?

So ultimately its up to the people to realise that there are at times, activities that need to cease and those people that implement those changes, need help to do so, because they are not infallible. Governments are not perfect. And their focus tends to be economy based, so the people, the majority, sometimes need to help their governments shift some of their focus.

By Fiona MacLeod©