Challenging times. Solid science shows identical “hockey stick” trajectories of accelerating growth for human population, development, fossil-fuel usage, carbon emissions, natural super-disasters, and the number of climate refugees.
Challenging times. Solid science shows identical “hockey stick” trajectories of accelerating growth for human population, development, fossil-fuel usage, carbon emissions, natural super-disasters, and the number of climate refugees.
We already use over 1.5 times Earth’s available resources, but still rely on growth-based economic, political, and behavioral models. To bequeath our great grandchildren a habitable planet, we must quickly unite across the globe to turn the climate crisis around. Life’s future here now depends on it.
The good news is that billions of us—in businesses, organizations, communities, and governments worldwide—are already on board. U.S. emissions have declined 15% since 2007. But too many remain unable or unwilling to address this greatest crisis of any human era effectively, and a catastrophic climatic tipping point is upon us. Global emissions, fueled by BRIC countries and others, still rise steadily, up 2.1% to nearly 36 billion metric tons in 2013. Participation in facing this global emergency is no longer optional: It’s time for “All hands on deck!”
What’s missing is a larger sense of selfhood. We need a new ethics/worldview founded in a sensibility of wholeness and “world-first” global responsibility. We need to value the sources and sustenance of our existence even more than our “me-first” agendas.
