What does science tell us about the climate crisis and why does the world want to keep it below 2 degrees Celsius? A warning on emissions from consumption, burning of biomass, and the nature of the world
By the time she spoke at Davos that January, excoriating the world — “I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is” — she had become the face of the global climate movement, giving it an entirely new generational life and scale. She led weekly marches that drew millions of people across the globe and helped force the world’s most powerful people to at least lip service to what they called a climate crisis.
The Climate Book has been published by the author. There are 100 essays from scientists, historians, economists, and journalists in this collection about the data and realities of the climate crisis.
Most critically, they — and Thunberg herself in numerous brief essays of her own — explain what steps need to be taken without delay if the world is to have a reasonable chance of limiting global temperature rise as stated in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The document aims to keep the temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius (and better yet below 1.5 degrees Celsius).
If you think rich countries are making progress towards limits on global warming, think again. “Wealthy nations must stop their use of fossils fuels by around 2030.” stated Kevin Anderson in his essay. We are where we are precisely because for thirty years we’ve favoured make-believe over real mitigation.”
What does Anderson mean by “make-believe”? The net zero target for 2045 was the focus of an investigative investigation by journalist Alexander Urisman Otto. The official figure of greenhouse gases emitted each year is 50 million ton, but the real figure is 150 million ton. She writes that the target is way off, since the official figure did not include emissions from consumption and burning of biomass. If all countries were off by a lot the world wouldn’t be able to handle an increase of 2.5 to 3C.
What does that mean, emissions from consumption and the burning of biomass? John Barrett, professor of energy and climate policy at the University of Leeds, and Alice Garvey, sustainability researcher at the same university, explain that “emissions from consumption” means emissions are allocated to the country of the consumer, not the producer. Because industrial production is often outsourced to developing economies, in a world where climate justice were front and center, the consumer country (in this example, Sweden) would take the burden of lessening the emissions from consumption.
Alice Larkin, professor of climate science and energy policy at the University of Manchester, adds “a highly significant complication” to this disturbing picture: international aviation and shipping aren’t typically accounted for in national emission targets, policies, and carbon budgets, either.
The goal is to have transparency in the climate- emissions figures. Distribution of climate budgets fairly across countries of the world must be prioritized by Thunberg beyond that. Without climate justice, policies are unlikely to succeed. “We are not all in the same boat” is an effective subsection of the book.
The communities most devastated by climate change are mostly poor people of colour, says the director of a Bangladeshi international center for climate change. But Bangladeshi citizens shouldn’t be thought of as passive victims, Huq emphasizes. Communities work together to prepare for the effects of climate disasters in ways not often seen in the global north. For example, “An elderly widow living alone will have two children from the high school assigned to go and pick her up” in case of hurricane or other emergency.
Globally, then, what to do? First, we can hold industrial and corporate interests accountable and push back on their messages placing the burden solely on the individual, a tactic that allows the worst of the status quo carbon-emissions activities to continue.
Beyond this, it’s not enough “to become vegetarian for one day a week, offset our holiday trips to Thailand or switch our diesel SUV for an electric car,” as Thunberg puts it. Taking part in recycling may make you feel good, but in fact, it’s possibly the greatest example of greenwashing on the planet today. Even the 9% of plastic that does get recycled ends up (after one or two cycles) dumped or burned.
We can join Thunberg in giving up- or at least reducing- a flying habit if we have one. Three further steps, out of many offered in the book, are these: Switch to plant-based diets. Support natural climate solutions, by protecting forests, salt marshes, mangroves, the oceans, and all the animal and plant life in these habitats. Pressure the media to go beyond the latest story on a heat wave or collapsing glacier to focus on root causes, time urgency, and solutions. Thunberg writes that “No entity other than the media has the opportunity to create the necessary transformation of our global society.”
Social norms are able to change. That’s our greatest source of hope — but only if we keep climate justice front and center at every step.
Greta Thunberg Book Climate Change: An Empirical History of the Sweds for Climate Change Campaign (with an introduction by Barbara King)
Barbara J. King is a biological anthropologist emerita at William & Mary. Animals’ Best Friends: Putting Compassion to Work for Animals in Captivity is her seventh book. Find her on Twitter @bjkingape
It all started with “skolstrejk för klimatet” – the “school strike for climate,” also known as Fridays for Future. At 15 years old, Greta Thunberg began spending her Fridays striking in front of the Swedish Parliament to demand action against climate change.
Millions of people have joined Fridays for Future in the last five years. Thunberg spoke in front of the United Nations. She became Time magazine’s youngest ever person of the year. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize four years in a row. She became a household name by finishing high school at just 20 years old.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/14/1155695838/greta-thunberg-book-climate-change
Climate Change: Where do I go? Where am I going to go? What can I learn from the conversation? Where are I going? What are I interested in?
I think what mainly motivated me was that it was so difficult to find a source where you could actually read and go in depth on these issues. People ask me “Where can I read?”. What can I read? What are I allowed to watch? I want to get more engaged with the climate crisis. I would like to become a activist. I want to learn. But I don’t know where to start.” This is a good place to start. I think it covers a lot of issues concerning the climate crisis. So it’s not just a one-sided story.
I wouldn’t say in the way that it needs to. We might see some improvements in some areas, but still, the U.S. is expanding fossil fuel infrastructure. At a time when thousands of people are losing their lives and livelihoods during a climate emergency that’s just continuing to escalate every day, it’s necessary to do that. I think that’s very, very irresponsible and it’s completely absurd.
That’s exactly the reason why the politicians and the people in power need to start speaking up. Because as it is now, they might not have the votes, they might not have the public support from voters to actually take these measures. How can we expect that? How can we demand drastic change if no one knows why those changes are needed?
Right now it’s like, saving the climate is seen as an act of tree hugging. It is not being seen as a way to save lives, it is just a way to protect our civilization. That is being put against jobs and workers, when it’s actually the opposite.
The fight for social justice is the fight for climate justice. We can’t have one without the other. They can not be put against each other. Unless people know the situation is bad, they’re not going to want to change because they’ll be happy with what they have.
The changes will come from the outside, as we’ve seen with successful campaigns. The issues are being raised in a way that has effects on the policies and decisions that are being made.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/14/1155695838/greta-thunberg-book-climate-change
Doing What I Can for the U.S. During the Adversarial Crisis and What I Mean to Do during the Term [Instagram]
And then, of course, I think that I’m not the one to tell the U.S. how they should do things when it comes to things like Congress and so on. I think that’s more up to the experts and the people there.
I really hope not. Politics is very, very toxic at the moment. And it doesn’t seem like the kind of world I would want to spend my life in. I think that I can do more as a campaigner on the outside.
Of course, I don’t think it’s what anyone expected or could ever expect. I have to use the advantage that gives me. It gives me a platform [where] I can speak up about things that can impact things, people, etc. It sends a message that we are focusing on specific individuals rather than the problem itself, and that the people who are affected are not aware of the consequences of that problem.
It may be overwhelming. I think there’s more to it than the feeling of doing something that matters. Doing something that has an impact. Something that in the future, I will be able to look back at and say, “I did what I could during this existential crisis when most people were just either looking away or were too busy with their own lives.”