Imagine We were not so Stupid

I’ve heard it said that Stupid is as stupid does, and I believe we've all done something that fits that statement.

I have done or said some pretty stupid things in my life, mostly when I was young, that I wish I could change. I have grown and learned from those things and believe I am a better person because of that growth. Learning from your mistakes and not repeating them is a natural part of growth that, as individuals, we do well.

But as a society, it's a totally different story. As a group, and by group, I mean the Human race, it feels like we have the inability to learn from our mistakes or the stupid things we do.

As Albert Einstein said, “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.”

The never-ending and ever-increasing disregard we as a species show towards our planet and all the creatures that inhabit it only proves Mr. Einstein’s point. There seems to be no boundaries or limits to human stupidity. How, in the name of all that is sane, can our leaders ignore the indisputable science and the day-to-day worldwide events that are broadcast across our screens? Can they not see that our planet is in pain and crying out for help?

Facts from www.conservation.org

416 parts per million--- The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere, as of July 2021, is the highest it has been in human history.

2020 was a scorcher--- Analysis by NOAA shows that average global temperatures in 2020 were 1.76 degrees F (0.98 degrees C) warmer than the 20th-century average — making it the second-hottest year on record. In fact, the seven warmest years in the 1880-2020 record have all occurred since 2014.

The ignorance displayed by us in the face of these facts is truly disheartening and borders on stupidity.

Joe Bastardi, a meteorologist, appearing on Fox News, argued that CO2 “literally” cannot cause warming because it doesn’t “mix well in the atmosphere” (it does). He’s also claimed that warming would violate the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. (In fact, global warming has nothing to do with newly created energy, but with the atmosphere trapping energy that’s already around.)

In the words of the great orator Martin Luther King, Jr., “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Or, Mr. Bastardi, in the words of Jim C. Hines, “Freedom of speech does not protect you from the consequences of saying stupid shit.”

For many years, our world leaders have been meeting and coming up with grand plans to battle the climate crisis. But a plan means nothing if we don't actually follow it. The problem is that these plans always seem to be based on ten, twenty or even fifty-year timelines.

Statements from the COP 26- UN Climate press release.

https://unfccc.int/news/cop26-reaches-consensus-on-key-actions-to-address-climate-change

“After six years of strenuous negotiations, pending items that prevented the full implementation of the Paris Agreement on carbon markets and transparency have finally been approved.”

Wow!!! It only took six years, after we watched the world leaders in Paris congratulate each other on the great job they had done, to approve two of the most critical points discussed; Carbon markets and, above all else, Transparency.

Think about that for a minute. What has actually been done by the world’s biggest polluters in that time? Without any true transparency, how can I believe anything they say?

Lord Chief Justice Hewart’s remarks on justice, uttered nearly 100 years ago, are fitting here, “Justice should not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.”

If you take out the word justice, which you don’t really need to do, and replace it with the word Change, you get my meaning.

Change is the keyword here. We need to enforce difficult changes in the way we live our lives, or this planet will enforce that change for us.

I have heard it said that we are killing the planet. To me, that statement is the height of human arrogance as we cannot kill this planet, but it most certainly can kill us. Without the political courage required to enforce actual worldwide change, I fear it's just a matter of time before this third rock from the sun eradicates the virus that is us.

The human race has been fighting a virus called Covid-19 for the last two years, but the Earth has been fighting a virus called human stupidity for much longer.

Without a doubt, we are wasting the one thing we cannot afford to waste; Time.

In the words of Victor Hugo from Les Misérables—“The earth is a great piece of stupidity.”

Let’s look at the last twenty years, in which we have accomplished less than nothing

2001- Bonn meeting, with the participation of most countries but not the US, develops mechanisms for working towards Kyoto targets.

Warming observed in ocean basins; match with computer models gives a clear signature of greenhouse effect warming.

2005

Kyoto treaty goes into effect, signed by major industrial nations except the US. Work to retard emissions accelerates in Japan, Western Europe, US regional governments and corporations.

Hurricane Katrina and other major tropical storms spur debate over the impact of global warming on storm intensity.

2009

Many experts warn that damage from climate change is arriving at a faster pace than was anticipated just a few years earlier.

Copenhagen conference fails to negotiate binding agreements: end of hopes of avoiding severe future climate change.

2015

Researchers find the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet may be irreversible, bringing meters of sea-level rise over future centuries.

Paris Agreement: nearly all nations pledge to set their own targets for greenhouse gas cuts and to report their progress.

2019

Increasing disasters (tropical cyclones, wildfires, etc.) join scientists' warnings to spur public demonstrations and civil disobedience.

2020

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications

Feb. 12, 2020

https://news.arizona.edu/story/onethird-plant-and-animal-species-could-be-gone-50-years

University of Arizona researchers studied recent extinctions from climate change to estimate the loss of plant and animal species by 2070. Their results suggest that as many as one in three species could face extinction unless warming is reduced.

2021

https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=21946#.YaIp9fDMIdU

Below are statements by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization in the United in Science 2021 report on the WMO website.

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

This is a critical year for climate action. We are still significantly off-schedule to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C will be impossible, with catastrophic consequences for people and the planet on which we depend. This report is clear. Time is running out. For the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, known as COP26, to be a turning point, we need all countries to commit to net zero emissions by 2050.

Prof. Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization

This report shows that so far, in 2021, we are not going in the right direction. Greenhouse gas concentrations – which are already at their highest levels in three million years – have continued to rise, reaching new record highs this year. Fossil fuel emissions in many sectors are back at the same or at even higher levels than before the pandemic.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin--“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

In the face of all the evidence presented to us by science and the day to day disasters that flash across our screens, how is it possible that there are still so many among us that don’t believe that we are the cause of the catastrophic changes that are happening to our planet?

The time for coming together as one to do all we can to help this world recover from the damage we have done, and are still doing, is NOW! Time is running out, so we don't have time to listen to the pure stupidity being offered up by climate change deniers.

Some of the things these people say and do are honestly mind-boggling.

Such as;

Ernesto Araújo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, appointed by Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has called global warming a plot by "cultural Marxists" and has eliminated the Climate Change Division of the ministry.

In 2019, Senator Gerard Rennick of Queensland, Australia, accused the Australian Bureau of Meteorology of changing data from temperature records to support a climate change narrative. "I don't believe the record," the senator said, citing his own "background in system accounting where I've changed records."

In February 2015, climate change denier Jim Inhofe claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax when he brought a snowball with him in the U.S. Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor.

Several far-right European parties have promoted climate change denial, including Spain's Vox, Finland's far-right Finns Party, Austria's far-right Freedom Party, and Germany's anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland.

To quote Albert Einstein again- “The height of stupidity is most clearly demonstrated by the individual who ridicules something he knows nothing about.”

I strongly believe in us and our ability to do the things that need to be done to ensure a future for our great-grandchildren living in harmony with this planet we call home.

In truth, we are more alike than we are different, and we all want the same thing; a safe place for our children. It's time to stop the stupidity and realize that we are all in this together. This crisis affects every person on this planet and the future of every generation to come.

So right now is the time, more so than any other time in history, to understand that we are not different people or races living under different flags, but we are all one people or one race, the human race, living under one sun.

Maybe I sound like a dreamer, but I believe we can do this, and someday in the not too distant future, the world will be a much cleaner place for all its inhabitants.

I would like to close with the immortal words of John Lennon;

“You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one.”