Us and climate change – We can do much more than we think

Already some decades now, people are confronted with unpredictable weather situations and getting to see how glaciers melt, countries have to battle either droughts or floods. This year, Belgium and Germany got so hard hit, thousands of people have lost their houses and private goods. Also, this summer we could witness, with brutal clarity, a world of lush forests, bountiful croplands, liveable cities, and survivable coastlines under threat.

For sure we on our own can not change the situation in such a way that we can turn back the clock and get better weather again. The climate crisis is too big to tackle alone.

The problem with our society is that most leaders and citizens are more concerned about earning and saving as much money they can do.

Do you know, you too, even when you think you are just a tiny spot in the ocean, can get the stone rolling to bring the necessary changes to avoid further global warming. We cannot stay at the sideline. We should talk about the situation with as many people as we can and push our politicians in the right way so that they shall dare to act for the world, which can not speak for itself. Our leaders must have the courage to act now to limit climate change and protect nature.

Though there are still lots of people who do not want to see it, science is clear:

we are damaging our climate and destroying our biodiversity.

We not only have to see the signs, it is very important to respond to the signs and take action! Practical steps right now!

After the lockdown, we may face now shortages in the shops. This might be a blessing in disguise encouraging us to plan for an end of year celebration focused on people rather than lots of food and presents. Think about what you most enjoy about celebrating Christmas, are how you can contribute to the sustainment of our planet in the Holiday Season.

On Saturday 6th November there is the Global Day of Action. Midway through COP26 it is not a bad moment to let your voice be heard. The politicians coming together in Glasgow have to know citizens are concerned with what happens to our planet and how we want them to take the necessary measures now, to do something against global warming and the need to protect people from the disasters of nature, like droughts and floods. If we do not call that global warming to a halt, that climate change shall bring a lot of people to lose their habitat and being forced to find other places to live so that we shall have a huge increase of climate refugees.

Photo by Barbara Barbosa on Pexels.com

At home, you can contribute with sorting, buying local and ecological (bio) products, making an effort not to use chemicals and unnecessary products. It is already a first step in the right direction when you try to reduce the ecological footprint. When you love to eat meat, think about certain animals suffering needlessly in factory farming. Avoid buying meat of animals in cages. Also, remember that by reducing meat consumption, you can help to reduce methane gases in the air and animal waste in the environment.

Demand your politicians that we, the richer nations and businesses, should act justly in response to the climate crisis. They are the ones who can push the negotiators at the COP26 in the right direction to make it work this year, to come to the right decision protecting our planet and its citizens! Ask your politicians that they invest money into proven solutions, green jobs & clean, renewable energy for everyone.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

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Find also to read and to do

Cop26 presidency run from within the UK Cabinet Office

What Did We Do?

Support Climate Legislation

COP26 Petition

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Preceding

Health Ranger apocalypse warnings already given in 2012

The natural beauties of life

How to make sustainable, green habits second nature

Vatican meeting of mayors talking about global warming, human trafficking and modern-day slavery

Republican member of Congress from Arizona to boycott pope’s address over climate change

It’s a New Year!

Building a low-carbon world: the sixth industrial revolution

UK Politicians willing to tear up decades of environmental protections

Africa’s human existence and development under threat from the adverse impacts of climate change

A dangerous turning point – Earth facing the collapse of everything

155 million people across 55 territories suffering from severe food insecurity

Earth’s pandemic and T-shirts for young people

Four ways to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises simultaneously

Streams caused by temperature differences

Time for world to ‘grow up’ and tackle climate change, says Boris Johnson

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Additional reading

1. Reducing effects of environmental disasters
2. Going for sustainable development
3. The Climate Crisis and the Need for Utopian Thinking
4. Challenges of the Post-Pandemic period
5. Today’s thought “Allowed to have dominion over the universe” (January 02)
6. Bijbelvorsers Blogging annual report and 2015 in review
7. Sign of the Times and the Last Days #2 Wars, natural disasters, famine and false Messiahs

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Related

1. Can humanity solve climate change, and if so, how?
2. #17_ Platforms vs. sustainability: The winners take all and everything is lost?
3. Earth’s natural carbon sinks: #Climatechange
4. Why Individual Actions Matter in the Climate CrisisThanks to Big Oil, Your Tax Dollars Are Spent Ruining the ClimateBolsonaro must be held criminally responsible for assault on the Amazon, say activists
5. COVID Vaccine access should be on the COP26 Agenda
6. COP26: Goal One – too little, too slowly
7. COP26 Petition
8. Call For National Climate Legislation
9. Queen Deplores Climate Crisis Inaction, ‘Irritated’ At Global Leaders Ahead Of COP26
10. COP26 Fundraiser
11. A climate of exclusionOpinion: COP26: Can Boris Johnson and the Conservatives be trusted to act on climate change?
12. Woman Who Worked at Africa Development Bank Leads G20 MDB Review Amid Pandemic, Climate CrisisComplicated, but clear, explanation of why coming winter likely to be toughDerrick Z. Jackson: ‘Code Red’ for Climate Means Reducing US Oil and Gas Production Now
    On the Racist Humanism of Climate Action
13. Click thru for a visual guide to how far the globe is into the climate crisis
14. Drought demands decisive action on climate crisis
15. Net zero would not stop climate change
16. Rethink Our Meat Intake
17. Drought Alarmism – Ignorance Or Deliberate Deception?Support – Message About Climate ChangeLatin American Nations Suggest Higher Fees for Smaller Climate Projects
18. William tells young people to ‘demand change’ at first Earthshot PrizeEcological Evil
19. Eco Tips
20. How to Save the World From a Climate Armageddon
21. Blogging At The End Of Earth

A cry in the dark by scientists and medics

It is a well-known fact that nature influences people. From all sites of the world, scientists cried out loud to become aware of what we are doing with Planet Earth. Mother Earth also cries, but so many do not want to hear nor see.
More than 200 medical journals from around the world have written an open letter demanding that governments stop climate change.

They believe that a warming planet is the biggest threat to world health. Sound advice or over-reacting? Leave your comments.

More than 230 medical journals have put climate change at the top of the world’s health agenda as the November COP26 climate conference in Glasgow approaches. They have published the biggest joint editorial in history to warn everyone that the greatest threat to public health is failure to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5°C. The signatories include The BMJ, the NEJM, The Lancet and numerous other top journals (with the notable exception of JAMA).

The terms of the editorial are apocalyptic:

“The science is unequivocal; a global increase of 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.”

“Indeed,” they write, “no temperature rise is ‘safe’.”

The role of governments is fundamental, they say. “Governments must make fundamental changes to how our societies and economies are organised and how we live.” Everything has to change: “transport systems, cities, production and distribution of food, markets for financial investments, health systems, and much more”.

And it is going to be very expensive. “Many governments met the threat of the covid-19 pandemic with unprecedented funding. The environmental crisis demands a similar emergency response. Huge investment will be needed, beyond what is being considered or delivered anywhere in the world.”

Missing from the editorial are the nuts and bolts of how global temperatures will impact on health – or simply some guesstimates of how many people will die if the temperature rises 1.5°C.

Climate gadfly Bjorn Lomborg is sceptical of the claims in the letter. He points out that the number of climate-change related deaths has plummeted since 1920:

Over the past hundred years, annual climate-related deaths have declined by more than 96%. In the 1920s, the death count from climate-related disasters was 485,000 on average every year. In the last full decade, 2010-2019, the average was 18,362 dead per year, or 96.2% lower.

He concludes that “we are now much less vulnerable to climate impacts than at any time in the last 100 years. It is possible that climate change has made impacts worse over the last century … but resiliency from higher living standards has entirely swamped any potential climate impact.”

Chances are, this letter will have no impact whatsoever on climate change policy. But it might make people sicker. Experts recently warned of “an impending epidemic of mental health related disorders such as eco-anxiety, climate disaster-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and future-orientated despair.” Nothing makes people suffering from eco-anxiety more anxious than eco-doctors predicting an apocalypse.

Michael Cook  editor of BioEdge

Time for world to ‘grow up’ and tackle climate change, says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson might have had very strange ideas about CoViD and about global warming, sometimes stepping in the footsteps of Donald Trump. But it seems he might have changed after he himself was infected by the coronavirus.

Boris Johnson calls for the world to “grow up” and addresses the threat of climate change to the future of humanity. It looks like the British prime minister, at last, has become convinced mankind has behaved like a reckless teenager with planet Earth, trashing its home in the “infantile” belief it will not have to suffer the consequences.

The UN Cop26 climate change summit which the UK will host in Glasgow in November must be “the turning point for humanity”, when the world must show it can limit temperature rises and prevent the planet becoming uninhabitable.

 

Earth’s pandemic and T-shirts for young people

We at the Belgian Christadelphian office have passed a certain age, so that it would not be appropriate to walk on the street with a T-shirt. As elders, we tell the visitors in our churches about the task we as human beings have when living on this planet. We talk about our responsibility and the task God has given us. But we do know the majority of inhabitants of this planet are not believing in God and are mostly concerned about gaining as much money as possible, whatever the cost may be.

The last few months, lots of people were very worried about the Covid-pandemic, but for years there has been another big virus circling around us, which most people seem to ignore. Though for more than a decade, several of the Boom generation with the millennials and the Generation Z have been writing essays, articles and making posters for awareness about global warming and cried out into the world to save our planet. Because that planet is getting very ill. People have used and wasted earthly resources, if nothing. In our so-called ‘civilised’ countries most citizens were and are not concerned about the pollution they cause.

For us the time of publicly protesting and going on the streets, protesting for this and that, may be gone or not so appropriate.
But for young people, we would like to introduce some very interesting clothing and tote bags with a different angle. We are namely very concerned about the world where we and our children and grandchildren but also next generations have to live in. Therefore, we do find it five past twelve to call on all the responsible people to use their senses and to do something against the horrible state we have brought our planet. We cannot sit still and do if global warming does not exist.

Everybody can use his own voice to bring awareness to others. A T-shirt is a wearable message board that can pull the attention to our planet and to what we have to do about it. The world needs to change as we are currently hurtling towards climatic changes that will alter the way the planet is configured. This will certainly be to the detriment of humanity if not cause its extinction. Crazy you may say but 99.99% of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct so just because we can walk and talk and use a smart phone does not mean that we will not go the same way.

Scientists and philosophers don’t in general want to be celebrities but it is important that we listen to what they have to say because they offer the only way out of this current crisis. So enjoy our range and change the world at least in one tiny way, an environmentally friendly piece of clothing. {Scientist and Philosopher}

It is not bad to have a look at their products to make others aware of this dramatic situation.

> A collection to highlight the need for us all to stop and think. > Think

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Find also to read

1. Weather, climate-change and man-made global-warmingGlobal WARming: An Overlooked Pandemic
2. Hot weather
3. Global Warming
4. Global Warming Was Explained in 1856. By a Woman
5. Environment
6. Climate explained: how the IPCC reaches scientific consensus on climate change
7. Rapid Climate Change Makes It Hard for Butterflies and Moths to Adjust
8. From CNN: Unprecedented heat, hundreds dead and a town destroyed. Climate change is frying the Northern Hemisphere
9. Time to write again, getting the word out, climate change is a reality
10. Too Dumb to SurviveThe Arctic’s last ice area
11. Last Ice…
12. Update on Climate Referendum in France
13. Julia Conley: ‘This Is Our Future’ Without Climate Action, Advocates Warn After Pipeline Causes Fire in Gulf of Mexico
14. IPBES/IPCC Report: Tackling the biodiversity and climate crises together
15. The Climate Crisis Is Accelerating – Now What?
16. An Actual Space Laser Shows How Devastating Sea Level Rise May Be
17. Climate Change & Joshua Tree National Park
18. Highest Ever Temperature Recorded In Finnish North
19. Why Polar Bears are on The Verge of Extinction
20. The monarch butterfly cab use our help to stay alive by Kalpana Sutaria, Austin American-Statesman
21. Seabird Salvation
22. Impeach Bolsonaro and Topic on Climate
23. global participation…

Paul Noël his writings and thoughts

Paul Noël or Paul Paddington when he was at school and as a teenager he promised his English teacher that he would one day write a book.

After studying he landed up in the IT, not exactly a place where books are written. Many years later he spent a lot of time travelling around South America with his partner and during the eight and half months there they sat on long-distance coaches quite a number of times. As part of this round the world trip once they left South America they spent Christmas and New Year in New Zealand and the time and the experience there are what kicked off the ideas for writing stories for children.

So, after completing a one year away travelling experience it was back to work for him. In his spare time he tried to get all the publishers in the Writers and Artists Yearbook interested in his work but rejection was one hundred percent. He basically gave up or was too busy and did not notice the huge growth of the wonderful Kindle Direct Platform allowing everyone to easily publish their ideas.

Then in February of 2018 he was made redundant after having worked at the same company for him to polish his stories and get them published on Amazon.

Next to writing stories he also publishes a blog. In his opinion the planet is in a very bad state and we have only got ourselves, the human primate, to blame. He writes

To get out of this mess we would need a species level mindset change and that would take some inspired leaders. Unfortunately, taking a look around, there are not many of those. {The wooden elephants have moved, London}

Perhaps the only way that we will see elephants in the future unless we stop senselessly killing them and encroaching on their land. Something that would involve curbing and stabilising human population growth. Taking things a step further we must hope that living trees weren’t chopped down to make the elephants.{Wooden Elephants, The Mall, London}

He also looks at places around his neighbourhood. He also notices how trees got damaged. He finds trees amazing, and

a crucial part of the life support systems that sustain all other life including the human primate. It’s a shame that we are such dumb monkeys and cut down and burn so many of them. {Battered tree, Hyde Park, London}

And he remarks:

Hyde Park of course is very managed and in normal woodland and forests the ground would not be manicured as it is here. The fallen trees would be a source of food for so many other forms of life.

Trees are amazing, a crucial part of the life support systems that sustain all other life including the human primate. It’s a shame that we are such dumb monkeys and cut down and burn so many of them. {Fallen giants lying at the feet of living giants, Hyde Park, London}

> Books By Paul Noël

Sometimes I feel like I’m actually on the wrong planet.

Very often lots of people live in their own cocoon. Others are on their way as they create their own world, giving preference to another world than the ones they view.

How many are willing to go out into the world wondering what they are doing there and questioning if they would not better do something to that world which is turning around like it should not be.

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Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling: Soms heb ik het gevoel dat ik daadwerkelijk op de verkeerde planeet ben.

Purplerays

Sometimes I feel like I’m actually on the wrong planet.
It’s great when I’m in my garden, but the minute I go
out the gate I think, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’

~ George Harrison

Text & image source: Marianne Gillis https://www.facebook.com/marianne.gillis.773

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Building a low-carbon world: the sixth industrial revolution

To avoid destroying our relationship with the planet > need to make radical changes + revolutionise way we use energy + the type of energy we use.

 

Lord (Nicholas) Stern = former Chief Economist of the World Bank + Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics + well known author of ‘The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change’ published in 2007  > led the way in explaining the economic theory of climate change + author of the acclaimed book A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: how to manage climate change and create a new era of progress and prosperity, published in 2009.

5 industrial revolutions so far: mechanisation of textiles; steam; electricity and steel; automobiles; information technology (still going) + now we need an energy industrial revolution (the 6th revolution).

we have to achieve a decarbonised economy by 40 years from now.

Carbon energy consumption = destroy our relationship with the planet, if we don’t carry out radical changes to the way we use energy + the type of energy we use from now on.

• At the current rate, the planet’s temperature might rise by 5 ˚C or even more by the end of this century, i.e. to levels not seen before on Earth for at least 30 million years.
• Conceptual science predicted and measured GHG in the atmosphere long before now and there’s evidence that El Niño and La Niña events are more frequent now.

we need to make radical changes to the way we use energy and the type of energy we use, everywhere in the world and in every sector = Energy efficiency easiest way to start.

if we fail in managing climate change, we will fail to stop poverty

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Preceding articles

It’s a New Year!

Here and Now

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• Costa Rica’s Pivotal Role in the Climate Change Agreement
• Energy white paper aims for 100pc carbon-free energy by 2100
• Interactive: The Paris Agreement on climate change
• Kinder Morgan makes final pitch for Trans Mountain expansion to energy board
• Homo Sapiens
• Enter Masdar’s 2016 ‘Engage’ Blogging Contest! The Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy by 2030

Dr Vera Lucia Barbosa's Environmental Blog

To avoid destroying our relationship with the planet, we’ll need to make radical changes and revolutionise the way we use energy and the type of energy we use. Are policies and people in networks and communities what will ultimately make it happen? I wrote this blog four years ago, when I was the editor for Environmental Impact and as such attended the Annual Dorchester Lecture, which was delivered by Lord Stern, at the Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire.

Lord (Nicholas) Stern is a former Chief Economist of the World Bank and he is a Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics. He is well known as the author of ‘The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change’ published in 2007 and which led the way in explaining the economic theory of climate change. He is also the author of the acclaimed book A Blueprint for…

View original post 775 more words

Here and Now

For years scientists warned politicians, but they would not listen and the citizens only thought of what was good for them at that moment, not interested to learn about the impact of their ecological and carbon footprint. No matter what happens nature shall show mankind that it is always stronger than the human being, which has to learn by falling and standing up again.

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To remember

rainfall causes problems to roads, cars, and rail travel => Movement restricted

towns + surrounding areas plagued by floods this winter.

recollection of previous winters = cold mornings with frost covered lawns + a wind that slaps your face with a chilling sting

ground not prepared as no drainage is available + waterways are not viable

foliage not resting as trees + flora remain green > earth rest less

environmental change on animal life > effects of stress, lack of sleep + tiredness

wildlife struggle to maintain their habitats

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• Infra loss in Tuticorin estimated at Rs. 737 crore
• Rain to be ‘Force’-ful at times; ‘Star Wars’ fans may need to take cover
• Ashkelon floods: Water seeps into Barzilai Hospital
• Wisconsin is Getting a Soaking from Rare December Rainfall
• Storms lining up to bring days of rain to Bay Area
• Long Island weather: Light rain into the night
• Boreal makes strides to reduce carbon footprint
• GeoPhy Reveals Carbon Footprints of UK’s Largest Retail Centres: Equals That Of Manchester

Medicinalmeadows

My town and its surrounding areas have been plagued by floods this winter. Movement from town to town is restricted as rainfall causes problems to roads, cars, and rail travel. It seems to be raining for a season. My recollection of previous winters has been cold mornings with frost covered lawns and a wind that slaps your face with a chilling sting. If wet, lingering rain and floods are to be our depths of winter then we are certainly not prepared. The ground is not prepared as no drainage is available and waterways are not viable. The foliage is not resting as trees and flora remain green. I wonder what fauna make of all this weather? What effect is this environmental change having on the animal life?

In our current ways of living we know the effects of stress, lack of sleep and tiredness. Will the earth rest less, will wildlife struggle to maintain…

View original post 108 more words

What climate activists can learn from Sunday School leaders

Preaching is not so easy as many think. Trying to convince people of certain matters is even more difficult.

Those who believe God created the world do know that they have to take responsibility in a wise way for the creation of the Most High, which we only have in loan. Christians do have no excuse, the should all they can to keep our universe as best as possible, taking care not polluting it and not wasting the precious material we our given by the Most High.

But Christians also do have the task to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to try this world in the meantime a nice good place to live in peace. For that reason they should try to convince others also to take care of this planet.

When we see how our world is evolving it is high time Christians do something for the environment and get as many people involved in the protection of the weaker and those who have no voice humans listen to (animals and plants)

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To remember

Robert White = development economics and planning consultant based in London = considers need for increased public support of emissions mitigation policies + encourages everyone to play their part.

• We can’t all be ‘young heroes’ => everybody can inspire change
• To make a difference =/= need to fly to Paris, work for a green start-up, or get teargassed by the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité.
• Charles De Gaulle airport Terminal 2E seems incredibly mundane compared to the energy of the COP21 centre at Le Bourget.
• influence country’s leader as a voting citizen
• learned in Copenhagen > leaders may need assistance in details > need to balance ambitious climate policies with citizens’ other demands
• what is at stake with climate change = much bigger problem > leaders < If short term economy = top of peoples’ priority lists => leaders’ hands are tied.
• 15% of people think climate change = one of top three issues facing UK in the next twenty years
• 34% included the economy
• To seriously mitigate emissions = people to shift from green consumption to less consumption + accept trade-offs => Higher taxes  to discourage high carbon consumption + pay for green infrastructure
• need to increase public support of emissions reducing policies if we want to see change
• achieve increased support for low emissions policies = couple of transferable ideas from old Sunday School teachings
• climate change mitigation.
• 1: need to get out there + engage.
  Evangelising =/= insular group.
  Church goers + environmental movements > become comfortable > attendance being more about socialising than sharing faith
• 2:  engaging often better at personal level than a preachy one
  Demonstrations + Facebook posts = not good enough
• 3: practice what we preach + demonstrate our conviction through our day to day actions
  People more inspired to act <= see similar person to themselves actually living out what they say
  Take the plank out your own eye
• Winning voters’ minds = difficult = important area that we can all make a difference

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Preceding

The natural beauties of life

First man’s task still counting today

Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth

Senator Loren Legarda says climate change not impossible to address

Away with it oh no! – Weg er mee, oh neen

God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace

 

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Additional reading

1. Taking care of mother earth
2. Facing disaster fatigue
3. Self inflicted misery #1 The root by man
4. Time to consider how to care for our common home
5. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
6. First man’s task still counting today
7. Being fit to take care of a garden
8. Three pillars of sustainable development, young people and their rights
9. Pope Francis Raises Hopes for an Ecological Church
10. Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you

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