Creating a stable climate

The climate is out of whack. Extracting, processing, and burning fossil fuels, with never-ending oil wars are irresponsible behaviors.

Last week our Royal family went to London. Princess Ivanka had a great time but did not get a chance to visit with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, because King Donald said she is nasty. “As the world burns,” America’s top soap opera, continues with a mock impeachment and a fake NAFTA agreement. Distractions must stop, we need to act on climate.

Meanwhile, carbon emissions, industrial agriculture, deforestation, and unrestricted pollution continue to increase. The Trump administration only cares for power and the U.S. economy, ignoring the 2030 tipping point.

Greta Thunberg continues her #FridaysForFuture strikes, the Sunrise Movement is growing, and the Climate trial Juliana vs. the U.S. started with a bang.

Broken economy

The consumption-based U.S. economy is obsolete. We may run out of food next year from the 2019 floods. Taking from nature to make, use, and discard goods, ignoring the true cost of waste, energy, and pollution, with taxpayer subsidies to make the economy run on the backs of the middle-class, has destroyed the environment and distorted the climate.

Life is abundant in the forest with a wide variety of species; energy from the sun is in harmony with a web of producers, consumers, and decomposers. Rain and carbon-rich soil with a wood-wide-web are the secrets of the forest.

Let’s build a circular service economy inspired by nature. Make, use, reuse, remake, and recycle. An economy in which today’s goods become tomorrow’s resources and nothing is discarded, would reduce waste, energy, resources, and emissions. Please get your copy of The Virtuous Circle, by Ellen MacArthur, free on Amazon.

Broken logic

Oil and gas have driven the U.S. economy and the military. Scarce conventional oil fields and the fear of running out of oil created the delusion that energy independence was desirable and achievable. But shale gas comes with fracking. Methane emissions from abandoned wells, flaring and venting methane, plus carbon dioxide emissions from burning methane, demand a ban on fracking. Plugging 20 percent of high-emission abandoned oil wells will reduce 80 percent of fracking methane emissions.

The GOP’s frantic attacks on the Green New Deal as unaffordable are climate denials. The choice is not between business as usual and funding a GNP. Fossil fuel subsidies, $5,000,000,000,000 (trillion) per year worldwide, will free-up funds to improve roads, dams, bridges and all other infrastructure. We are living in a new world where the smart will prevail.

Failing to act now is ecocide, no one will be spared. Constitutional rights will be gone, martial law will take over. Climate refugees will be knocking at your door. Things will get worse.

The Nov 27, 2018, U.S. multiagency Federal Global Change Research Program report was ignored. “Yeah, I don’t believe it,” Trump told reporters when asked about the predictions of economic devastation.

Mike Pompeo discussed in Finland the future of the Arctic. Ice reflects solar radiation cooling the planet. Abrupt ice thawing would release massive amounts of permafrost methane into the atmosphere. Pompeo said, “The melting sea ice in the Arctic region might uncover a vast wealth of resources and open up new international trade routes.”

Climate transcends politics, it is driven by carbon dioxide, not GOP deceptions. Survival demands honest behavior and courage, no blame, no heroes, all working together with a single goal. Global trade and mutual respect between nations are required to solve global climate threats.

Stable climate

Reducing carbon in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million will restore the climate and reduce global temperature, avoiding extreme weather events. Intact forests are essential for a stable climate. Unbroken wilderness is one of the most important ecosystems, but it’s being destroyed by commercial logging, fracking roads, and pipelines.

Regenerative agriculture helps build carbon-rich soil to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Let’s learn from nature where life has flourished for millennia in perfect harmony.

We have been chosen to save life on Earth.

Dr. Luis Contreras