The new IPCC report: it can scare you or it can empower you.

The fourth and final IPCC report came out today (lots of news on it) . I said before that I don’t really care about the specifics of the global warming debate because in my opinion, change is needed regardless of what people think “scientific consensus” means.  But as I read the G&M article, part of me got the chills knowing what potential disasters lie ahead and part of me felt extremely empowered.

What’s scary:

• Water use and availability is likely to be deeply affected across much of Canada, the report says.
  • Adding to that problem… even though Canada has one of the largest supplies of freshwater in the world, much of it is polluted – surface water and groundwater. Moreover, we don’t really know how to detect how much cleanup we really need to do.

 

• The circle they can’t square is their current support of tar sands development and greenhouse gas reduction,” said Mr. Hazell.
  • Yep, we’re still looking at Alberta with dreamy dollar sign eyes. Oh, and extracting oil from tar sands is also one of the most water-intensive and water-polluting processes (see point above).

 

• “If you look at the scientific knowledge things do seem to be getting progressively worse,” Pachauri (Chairman of IPCC) said later in an interview. “So you’d better start with the interventions even earlier. Now.”
  • And Canada isn’t changing its plans?

• The effects will be greatest in the developing world.
  • Island states submerged, African crop yields down by 50 percent, and cause a 5 percent decrease in global gross domestic product
  • Enough said.

 

What’s empowering:

·        The time to act is now.

·        Business opportunity galore for those that have sustainability in mind

The problem is not just climate change.  

People use that word like it’s just about cleaning up our CO2 mess.  But in reality, the problem is rooted much deeper than that. It’s about changing our habits, our systems and our thinking.

When you start thinking about the possibilities for change…that’s empowering.