All Sorts of Reactions to the IPCC 1.5ºC Report — Except the Right One

If I don't talk this week about last Sunday's release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Global Warming of 1.5ºC Report, I could possibly be the only armchair pundit who doesn't. So I will, but only to let you know my thoughts and feelings about the reaction to the report.

Although I live in the bubble of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) and enviro activists, it was impossible not to hear President T**** admit that he hadn't looked at it. "It was given to me. And I want to look at who drew it. You know, which group drew it. I can give you reports that are fabulous and I can give you reports that aren't so good," he said. I wonder where he gets his "fabulous" reports from. 

(This report was prepared by over 90 scientists from 40 countries who synthesized over 6,000 scientific references. It was then approved by all the governments in the world, although I heard from someone who was there that the US and Saudi Arabia and a handful of other countries threw up lots of roadblocks to that approval.)

Unlike their president, Republican politicians in the United States did have opinions — fatuous though they were. As reported by the Huffington Post, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said, "They might as well be calling on me to sprout wings and fly to Canada for the summer," and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said of the actions urged by the report: "It's totally unrealistic. They must have parachuted in from another planet. There's not enough money in the world to pay for that. That's the problem with the UN that they come up with these policy ideas that are just 'La La Land.'" 

And yet President T**** is bragging these days (at the La La Land UN) that he just upped the US military budget to over $700 billion, an increase of 10%. So there's money enough for threatening, invading, killing, maiming, and destroying, but not for safeguarding life. Funny that.

Oh, and let's not forget the $5.3 trillion (TRILLION!) in direct and indirect subsidies that we taxpayers give to fossil fuel corporations every year. So there's money enough for coal, oil, gas, pollution, but not for the renewable energy technologies that could safeguard life. Funny that.

But I found the hardest part of this week were the responses of ordinary people like you and me who understand the climate crisis, who care about the climate crisis, who would perhaps call themselves climate change activists, but who are taking this report as a signal to stand down. I can't believe how many are giving up. Guy McPherson is in vogue again with his abrupt climate change "It's too late" message, so "live, love, and aim for excellence" (as one online commenter suggested to me). (By the way, there's nothing "abrupt" about this. We've known about it since at least the 1800s.)

Well, NO, damn it! I'm not giving up or giving in. I don't want to live excellently; I want my niece and all the beloved kids in my life to live, period. If we're going down, I want to go down swinging. I am going to carry on believing in the possibility of miracles through imagination and creative problem solving. I'm going to keep believing in the power of love and compassion to show our leaders that their own offspring will be impacted. I'm going to keep trying to teach ecological literacy and connecting with the rest of Nature. I'm going to keep seeing the potential for a return to simpler ways and a huge global race to zero carbon. Until my last breath. 

I believe that's the right reaction to the IPCC's 1.5ºC Report. For the sake of all the children, of all species, for all time.

p.s. I liked this article: Do we need an IPCC special report for humans?

The Saddest of Déjà Vus, All Over Again

Remember Libya? Yeah, it wasn't that long ago. But the war drums didn't stop beating in the Middle East.

And now the American president, Barack Obama, has unleashed the dogs of war -- on Syria. 

I am feeling so, so sad for Syria and its people. It's Iraq and Libya all over again (and reminding me of a song lyric: "Thank you for our freedom, could you leave now please?") 

But I'm also feeling outraged that Obama would so blatantly and unabashedly announce this new "war" a week before the huge climate change events in New York City. It's like a giant Eff U to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who called the September 23 Climate Summit, and anyone else who gives a damn about the climate crisis.

Obama never had any intention of doing anything about climate change. He was always a coal man, allowed to become president by his Big Money backers. 

So true to form, after stalling for a couple of years (during which some of us naively thought he was showing restraint for the right reasons), he picks now to announce a new war. 

If there was a shred of respect left in me for this man, it has shrivelled up in my province's drought and blown across the dried up agricultural lands of Syria.

The War Song — A Compassion Tune-Up in Honour of Innocent Victims

A climate change blogging friend of mine is becoming more despondent at the tough news coming in daily. I responded to his grief recently by sharing that "as the news gets worse, I feel my fortitude strengthening. I think I'm soon going to start blasting &^%$#@*s as I meet them!"

Well, forget meeting them. I'm going to blast a whole bunch of them, right here and now, online. I am blasting every single person in the United States of America who just goes along with the stupid American culture of guns, violence and war without standing up and speaking out for what's right and good and what needs changing. (Same goes for stupid Canadian culture that's imitating stupid American culture.)

I think the lyrics (below) to this song are too nice to "people." War doesn't make people stupid (okay, yes, it does); stupid people make war. And as Culture Club sings: "Now we're fighting in our hearts" as well as in the streets. 

"Won't somebody help me?" (p.s. This song often disappears from the internet, so please let me know if it's not below.)

The War Song 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And love means nothing
In some strange quarters 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And I heard them banging
On hearts and fingers 

People fill the world
With narrow confidence
Like a child at birth
A man with no defense 

What's mine is my own
I won't give it to you
No matter what you say
No matter what you do 

Now we're fighting
In our hearts
Fighting in the street
Won't somebody help me? 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And love means nothing
In some strange quarters 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And I heard them banging
On hearts and fingers 

Man is far behind
In the search for something new
Like a Philistine
We're burning witches too 

This world of fate
Must be designed for you
It matters what you say
It matters what you do 

Now we're fighting
In our hearts
Fighting in the street
Won't somebody help me? 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And love means nothing
In some strange quarters 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And I heard them banging
On hearts and fingers 

After the bird has flown
He walked ten thousand
Miles back home
You can't do that to me, no
You can't do that to me
You can't do that to me, no
You can't do that to me 

In this heart of mine
I find a place for you
For black or white
For all the children, too 

Now we're fighting
In our hearts
Fighting in the street
Won't somebody help me? 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And love means nothing
In some strange quarters 

War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And I heard them banging
On hearts and fingers

And what, you might be asking, does this song have to do with climate change? Easy. It's all connected. The "greatest nation on Earth" is kept in a state of fear, at war, tranquilized by television, so that the Money Power — which includes the families and the corporations most invested in fossil fuels — can carry on without challenge.

So many innocent victims. May their families find some peace, somewhere, sometime, somehow.