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Climate change is happening now

• Average temperatures have increased and are continuing to increase
• There are more droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods.
• Climate refugees have been forced from their homes by their land becoming infertile.

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Climate change is man-made

• There is now no doubt that climate change is due to greenhouse gases (especially CO2) released into the atmosphere by human activity
• Levels of CO2 have increased steadily since mankind started burning fossil fuels in large quantities
• The average temperature rises are in line with what is predicted by scientists from what is known about the atmosphere

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Climate change is already serious and we're heading for a complete catastrophe and the breakdown of civilisation

Due to climate change, we already have

• lethal heatwaves and wildfires
• lethal storms: hurricanes, typhoons, floods and mudslides
• civil unrest: e.g. the conflict in Syria
• climate refugees
• loss of species.

This is from 1.2° of global warming - and without effective action, we are heading for 6° of global warming.
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The latest UN (IPCC) report indicates that we need to make immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions

The AR6 report was released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in August 2021. It indicates that

• we need rapid and far-reaching transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities
• the residual global carbon budget to stay within 1.5° of global warming will run out in 2031 at current emission rates
• in high-polluting countries such as the UK, a fair share of the residual global carbon budget will run out in 3 years - see document 33

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The solutions are simple and should have been implemented already

We already know what to do:

• phase out use of fossil fuels as quickly as possible
• use less energy
• increase energy generation from sustainable sources

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But politicians and officials have failed to act appropriately due to poor decision making and corrupt decision making

• The threat from climate change has been known for decades. International agreements have been made but they have been inadequate and compliance with them has been poor.
• World greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase.
• UK greenhouse gas emissions have fallen little (despite official claims)

The problems in the politicians and officals include ignorance, arrogance, deceit, cowardice and corruption, and there is mass denial of the scale and urgency of the problem throughout society
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Many citizens feel an obligation to act:

• In a modern democracy, citizens delegate most decision-making to full-time officials - and these officials are (or should be) supervised by elected politicians.
• But officials and politicians frequently abuse their power and act like masters of the people rather than servants of the people - and this has been happening in climate change policy making.
• So the fight for a safe climate is a fight against abuse of power, and a fight for democracy.

Citizens should

• change their own lifestyle to a sustainable lifestyle (e. g. by using the calculator at https://www.carbonindependent.org/index.html)
• contribute to an effective plan - see document 57
• insist that the decision-makers comply with this plan - by "civil disobedience" i. e. citizen enforcement, if necessary.

First published: Feb 2019
Last updated: 24 Nov 2021