Climate Change Manifesto

The future of human beings is being threatened by not just global warming, but the universal response to global warming.  

If global warming increases more than 2 degrees Celsius, will have big impacts on agriculture with heat waves increasing. Big impacts on agriculture mean increasing climate refugees, this is due to vulnerable countries located in the subtropic of Africa or agriculture beds in the world that will experience heat waves. The Greenland ice sheet melting will lead to the loss of coastal cities meaning more displaced families. There will be shortages of water leading to drought especially in Africa, India and South America. The deforestation of forests will lead to depleted and stressed soils and leading to releasing of carbon dioxide rather than absorbing it. The biggest problem seen that was gently addressed in Paris Agreement is developed countries tendency to discuss climate change as a temperature issue rather than the system they have created to continue polluting the environment which will make it impossible to decrease the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the suggested two degrees celcius.

The current model set in place focuses on talking about actions to curb carbon emissions, we need to focus on the system that increases carbon emissions. The capitalist system which the drives the biggest economies in the world is based on competition, limitless growth, products that aim to produce mass and unnecessary production and consumption. The capitalist system aims to separate humans from nature, by striving to show that nature serves humans and we must dominate and transform to what we want. In doing so, everything on Earth has been turned into a commodity and things we assume to be rights are now being stripped from the Earth and its people by other humans who are focused on development and wealth.

Development and wealth are important to the sustainment and enjoyment of human life. Most people agree they would like to be able to enjoy things and or get rid of diseases and make life easier. Capitalism turns a beautiful effort into one of colonization, where humans trample, impose and invade one another to get what they want or need. This mentality is the biggest hurdle towards global reform for the sake of climate change. Why? Capitalism affects everyone, all people are bought into a system where you must work and compete to gain what you need. Those who are rich, keep getting rich through cheap labor and resources by exploiting the poor. Those who are poor keep working to serve the rich, to earn the little that they do and have no time to think other issues that do not concern their immediate survival. So we create a dilemma, where the rich need to keep the status quo in order to remain comfortable and the poor don’t have the time or the knowledge to change the status quo.

In order to invoke real change we must come to an understanding that all human beings regardless of social cleavages and equal and deserve the right to live, be respected by maintaining their spaces and identities, right to water, right to clean air, right to good health, shelter and food. Therefore we must understand that the Earth does have a limit and if not properly monitored our race to development will hurt us more than help us. Therefore all countries for the time being in order to keep global warming to less than two degrees celcius will need to create only necessary goods and services to secure the needs for their populations What has been observed in the richer countries, is they typically produce a bigger ecological footprint even with smaller populations this is because people are living extravagantly.

The figure above takes into account each country’s ecological footprint and biocapacity. The more red a country appears the more deficit is present, the more green a country appears the more reserve is present. It is estimated that we now use the equivalent of 1.7 Earths, and it now takes the Earth a year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year ( footprintnetwork, 2018). Meaning we are using and taking more than the Earth can regenerate through the behavior of domination of nature. The first goal is to obviously stabilize and then hopefully be able to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

We must then understand that everyone has different responsibilities in this, and some will be held more accountable than others due to their own actions. Meaning since developed countries are living far beyond their means, and the question in these countries is not lack of but instead distribution. Developed countries should create systems that increase not the production of goods and services but the distribution to improve equity and equality in their nations. Therefore they must commit to strict targets in order to drastically reduce the carbon in the atmosphere. This is also gently touched on in the Paris Agreement asking developed countries to reach peak green gas emissions as soon as possible. The language would need to be stricter but it alludes to the fact that we must stop burning coal, oil and gas. If we were to get developed countries to commit to no more burning now, they would have to find efficient and sustainable ways to distribute energy and this would mean more research and application of sustainable energies like wind and solar power.

Now of course developing countries will want to increase their wealth and the well being of their countries. They can do this by not hurting the Earth as much. Since they are behind in technologies they can leap frog which means the development of their countries doesn’t need to go through baby steps they can skip burning coal and start using solar and wind power. The developed countries and more eminent developing countries will have to work together to assume costs and technology transfers to these developing countries. This is not just a financial investment but educational as well, they must provide the proper information for maintenance and training to these countries so they can carry on the touch themselves. If developed countries do not take on this sort of understanding, we will continue receiving more and more climate change refugees and it is only right that they assume responsibility for them and eliminate strict immigration policies and guarantee decent lives for immigrants are received in their countries. The Paris Agreement alludes to a financial system to support adaptation processes for developing countries, described in the decision area and not the action area. It states that there will be 100 billion dollars raised per year by all developed countries and eminent developing countries to support this cause starting the year 2020.

The hope is also as developed countries change their modes of behavior and continue to thrive, developing countries will notice and eventually take the lead. In order to ensure that there are no power struggles once developing countries are given money and resources. There should be a global government unlike the UN that has the interests of big countries pushing its ideologies and funding. It must be an organization where every state is equal as far as consequences for not abiding by the rules agreed upon by all. They must be a council the oversees the implementation and enforcement of above said changes. The Paris Agreement had this included where countries report how much progress they have made every five years,and all countries judge their hard work. It suggests that developing countries will be held to a lower standard than developed countries but if the resources, and lack of exploitation exists there is no reason why developing countries wouldn’t be held to the same standards. In addition, I believe these countries should report to the global council who would have their own scientists that may fact check and make sure these countries are being transparent. Just like the world of science if a form of reduction is working in one nation, we can work to collaborate  with other countries to experiment and see if that method would work for them as well.

This global council would also be in charge of the fund money, and making sure that cut of emissions in developing countries stops as well as the invasion and privatization of properties in other countries. Like mentioned before, capitalism thrives on modern colonialism and all countries developing and developed do it to one another. The use of money to manipulate governments to allow one to exploit resources with no consequences or real beneficial profit from these countries. Therefore the collective rights to the lands, territories of the native people must be handed back to them. Through the resources, which include knowledge that the global collective has, these countries may learn how to sustainably maintain and hopefully replenish the pristine and function of their resources.

Now there will be doubts and hesitations from all governments across the spectrum. This is because most governments are governed by those who grew up during the generations of that built the now future of limitless behavior and dominion over the earth. It is important that the youth of today whose future is tomorrow, rise up and educate themselves on the policies and current threats to the environment. In most developed countries, this would mean a refocus on humanity studies and ensuring that education curriculums have aspects that train students how to be proper citizens. These include the practice of voting, understanding all systems of the government, how to change policy and having their voices heard.  

Lastly, the global council must have a check and balance council that serves as the justice and protection of this global government. It may reprihand the global council if they are believed to not be impartial but most importantly to hear the claims of injustice by vulnerable states and the difficulties that the developed states have. It is important that the leaders of all countries do not feel as though they are being forced into a way of life but instead being nudged in the proper direction and that their frustrations matter. That being said this justice council will also have the right to judge and penalize those states, people or companies that break any agreements agreed upon by all.

We must all decide and choose each other over ourselves. Whether you are a believer or non-believer in climate change we must choose to see that we all suffer if we refuse to hear the cries of one another. There is not enough time to argue all points but I believe the process of rebuilding the way we view the marketplace will help us see those direct benefits and curb the adverse effects of climate change.

Soapbox Project

Tayler and I focused on alternative energies and there use and accessibility in developing and developed countries. I have to apologize my sound files when uploaded sound "scratchy", so just turn down the volume and it should be smooth sailing from there. I learned a great deal while doing this, especially how many of these alternatives and there and available, just waiting to be invested in.

I hope you learn something, and enjoy our project!
Here it is!

Five Degrees

The big issue brought up in five degrees is the problem of habitability. Several themes mentioned in previous chapters continue to deteriorate in five degrees.

The various issues are as follows:

•     No ice sheets will remain as melting becomes inevitable.
•     Rain forests shrink or completely disappear (Like Dr. Karowe spoke of biome switches, so rain forests turning into savannas etc.)
•        Sea levels continue to rise; meaning floods increase.
•        Droughts as geographical areas such as the Sahara, Kalahari, Western Sahel etc. expand.
•         Inland temperatures raise more than 10⁰
•          New deserts will form because of these inland temperature changes and expansion of deserts in places in East Africa, Chile, Southern Europe etc.
•           Not all places will lose the ability to grow food or continue to be bread baskets, but places that are lucky won’t be able to feed the entire population. These places include Russia and Canada.
•           Methane hydrates will increase due to ocean temperature increase meaning more greenhouse gases. It is at 5 degrees Lyman believes that is where we reach the point of no return.

Habitable zones

The issue that was brought up, that was interesting to me was the idea of habitability. Dr. Tim Palmer used an example in class of increasing sea levels in Miami, will allow people to still move inland. Though places like Bangladesh, there is no more inland space that will be habitable and therefore that will cause refugee crises, even wars over resources such as land. I believe sometimes we forget the earth is finite and has its own boundaries and yes, even with technology we cannot make all space on earth habitable. Therefore, climate change should be an alerting issue.

Here is an interesting article on habitability, its where I pulled the graph from. I also posted this sea level video as a response to a previous blog but I think it drives home how devastating these degree increases will be! 

Solar Power

I read this research paper termed " Solar Power and Sustainability in Developing Countries." It began by reiterating what we have learned over the semester, which is we are too dependent on fossil fuels. In this case it focused on developing countries, that are trying to progress and how investing in fossil fuels will continue to do damage to the environment. Also, the resources available to these developing countries to ensure the distribution of electricity is really difficult because of places like isolated villages and poor grid systems.

Solar panels on village huts in Kenya.

So, their solution is solar power. Which for most developing countries is readily available to them and therefore would not be scattered resource. They also argued that because there are building more and more efficient solar power machines, that brings competition and therefore will lower down prices. Also there has also been a lot of international investment in the alternative energy in developing countries and therefore the foundation has already been built.

The only thing I disagree with in this paper, is it made the switch to alternative energy in developing countries seem super simplistic. In several papers I have read, it has been said that alternative energy is easily adaptable in developing countries but so far none of the papers I have read give a reason why these energies haven't overtaken in these countries.

Here is the link for the above mentioned paper.

That's it for now. More research.

Minimalism After Thoughts

Documentary on Netflix, book as well.

 This weekend I watched Minimalism on Netflix. It was a documentary centered around the two founders of minimalism and how it has affected their lives. The documentary begins the explanation of consumerism and how over the past 100 years it has gotten completely out of control.

The documentary mainly focuses on the psychological benefits of living a minimalist lifestyle. For example, feeling like you have purpose and control over your life because the things that are in your space are not just for clutter but for a purpose. It creates a community being able to ask others for help with things instead of just going out to buy it. For example, a pregnant woman who practices this lifestyle needed a formal dress and instead of going out and buying one, she asked her girlfriends if she could borrow one.

It touched a little bit about the ecological costs of over consumption which including burning of coal, use of natural gas. Also the social injustices such as sweat shops in order to dodge labor costs and so on.

Borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor

The one thing I enjoyed about this documentary was it is not again consumerism and it understands that the way to fix these issues is not by telling everyone to stop buying things. Instead it discourages "compulsory consumerism" which means buying things because that's what you ought to do, that's what it means to have made it and attained the American Dream. Instead ask yourself " Does this thing bring value to my life?" The movie understands that this looks different for everyone and therefore can be applied accordingly. Another interesting thing they mentioned was the use of space in American homes and how places like the dinning room aren't fully used and therefore end up being a waste of space. Coming from a country that is founded in community this was interesting to watch and see people live the way I remember living back home and learning to count on each other.

The psychological need to grow and continue grow is discussed just as it was in Eaarth. How marketing manipulates that need is very impressive and daunting what it has been able to make people do for years. So if you are interested in living in another way and want to contribute to a sustainable system, this is an important documentary to watch.

Use of space in American homes. Visit lifeedited.com  

Alternative Energy: Why haven't we switched over already?

Taylor and I decided to research on alternative energy. We keep seeing this key word in most environmental centered readings we have, they are shown to be the solution. Time and time again we keep seeing these technologies are available e.g, solar panels, wind turbines, hybrid cars etc. So why haven't we switched over yet?

If you all remember, at a class discussion hosted by Dr. David Benac, he had made a point about leap frogging technology in the developing world. Obviously the development of developing countries is of great interest to me. So, the first source I read tackles whether developing countries can skip the centralized electrification system and why it is so difficult for developed countries to do that.

William in Malawi builds turbines for villages

So first, leap frogging is just the ability for societies to advance to newer technology without using the infrastructure of its predecessor. For example, the use of cellphones in developed countries without using the landline infrastructure first. Can this approach be used for electricity as well? The issue in developing countries which I have also experienced in Uganda, is shortages and it is not because the technology to generate electricity doesn't exist but the distribution systems are not as efficient. This is because in most developing countries the cities and rural areas are vastly different and far. Suburbs exist but there is also isolated homes and isolated suburbs people distribute themselves all over. This makes it hard to create efficient grid technologies that are able to reach everyone.

Therefore these developing countries find themselves investing a lot of resources in grid expansion and still have a large amount of the population without electricity. While, the introduction of solar panels which can work for individual homes are easily installed and applies, because the grid infrastructure is not too efficient it is easy to override and leapfrog to new technology. While in developed countries since there has been so much investment into the current grid, and most homes are connected in each grid it makes it difficult to apply these new technologies to a grid.

Another interesting fact I read is that the United Nations has an initiative that was  introduced in 2012, with the aim to provide universal access to modern energy services by 2030. Which I didn't know about.

Still have lot of research to do, but so far the topic seems interesting.

Ishmael: Final Thoughts

"With Gorilla Gone, Will There Be Hope for Man."

The last final chapters of this text, bring everything full circle. Ishmael starts by asking the narrator to define culture, and we are able to see the differences between leaver and taker culture. We see that the leavers evolve just like other organisms and pass on the ways of life to next generations, While in taker culture, we take each lesson learned before and are always tweaking because, it is believed that there is only one way of living.

What I found interesting, is after learning the full story and how we got here, Ishmael's solution to the narrator is he too must be a teacher because it takes the changing of minds to change actions. It was in this point in the text, that I understood why he had said that was the point most people quit. I find myself suffering from the same frustration, when you are trying to help people see how trapped they are. I think its hard to just offer education as the solution, when many of us see how quickly time is running out and understanding in order to change someone's mind they must be willing to change.

Maybe that's Ishmael's point, to show that even though we are in a prison we don't know we are in,  there is a small part of us that knows something has to change. We just need to find the right teachers at the right time and we could have a thinking revolution.

I am reminded of a discussion, we had in class concerning environmental psychology. All the examples that were given of how learning about how people think could move us towards a more sustainable Earth. The truth is, that is the problem now is the language environmentalists use is either too alarming it is ignored. Or, its not said at the right time and again it is ignored. I read this research article focusing on pages 445-449. I found it helpful in understanding how to even communicate the things I'm learning in this class to other people so we can have smart dialogue.

I think, if we all adapt the stance of meeting people where they are, and understanding we were all once selfish or ignorant of the issues present today. There might be hope for man, with gorilla gone.