We’re losing the battle against rising emissions – and in a very, very big way.
 
According to a piece on the Washington Post and an Associated Press article; new data from the USA’s Department of Energy show carbon emissions are now accelerating more than the worst-case scenarios depicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2007 report.
 
If this continues, the Earth will go on of course, it will just be a very different place – perhaps one not so conducive to a comfortable existence for humans (and many other species).
 
We’re just passengers on this ride, not the owner of the vehicle; and we’ve been rowdy passengers that could well be kicked off. We’ve been brilliant at kicking off other species and what goes around often comes around.
 
Still, we’re a pretty resourceful bunch right? Worse than worst case scenario, some/many will survive I guess, but what sort of world will it be? 
 
I said back in 2008 that a world that uses geoengineering techniques such as “global dimming” is a world I don’t want to live in, but that is just me. A child growing up in that world will know no different. A clear blue sky and starry nights will be the stuff of fairy tales. What a shame that would be.
 
Maybe we can still avoid disaster of an incredible scale, but it seems to me what it will take is another sort of disaster to do it. For example, emissions growth tapered off somewhat only during the Global Financial Crisis. 
 
Maybe a disaster will come in another form – the Black Death in mediaeval times was quite effective at slowing us down for a while. As the Earth’s climate changes, as we hack into areas that have not hosted human populations, who knows what nasties we could unleash.
 
The incredibly tragic thing is it doesn’t have to be this way. Or does it? We’ve had some years now to implement what are comparatively easy and painless solutions. Too often in human history change has only occurred after a disaster.
 
So, given the doom and gloom, should we just stop trying to green our lives? Well, we know from a very early age that regardless of what we do, we’re going to die anyway, but most of us don’t say “what’s the point” and take our lives or just sit around waiting for death to occur. Of course we should still try.
 
Warm and fuzzy green stuff is really nice, but it’s now bows and arrows against the lightning. We cannot wish this away, nor will a reusable designer bag with a pithy saying be humanity’s saviour.
 
The simple green actions are still important, but we need to really ramp up our efforts in the battle. We can recycle as much as we can, but what really needs to happen *now* is an even bigger push to rid ourselves of fossil fuel use. More solar, more wind power, more EVs, more sustainable housing and reining in of population growth through education. It can be done, the solutions are there or almost there – it just needs the political will and to occur much faster than it is now. 
 
As always, hope and strive for the best, but given where we are at now, perhaps also put a little more thought into preparing for the worst.