Well done the weather walkers!

It's good to see so many people on the streets today, protesting climate change.  I have to say had I known about the event I would have joined in the march here in Warsaw - assuming there is one (I've seen nothing ov tv about one yet).  But from what I've seen so far on my main news source, the BBC World News channel and website, the marches across the world have attracted not just school and college kids but tens of thousands of concerned individuals of all ages.  And not a hint of trouble (as I write, early afternoon in a cool cloudy Polish capital).  This is all good.

Forget Brexit.  Discount Trump's and Democratic candidates' posturing. Ignore the US - China trade war that threatens the entire global economy.  It seems to me the Number One threat to this planet, and all of us who live on it is Climate Change.  Global Warming if you prefer.  If it isn't addressed by all of us, and soon, the place will be changed so much international trade, global economics, capitalism, Islamic terrorism, the whole lot, will be unsupportable in any case.  A good proportion of the planet will be places where, conservatively, it will be difficult to live and prosper, never mind indulge in petty squabbles about my God's better than your God, or whose food is best, or whether US cars are better than German (hint: it's not the American).  Whole countries will have disappeared under rising seas (the Maldives and Polynesia, for instance) and others changed forever and reduced in size by the same catastrophe (the Netherlands, parts of the eastern United Kingdom and eastern coast of the USA, many others).  It's happening already.

The threat, no matter what nay sayers may claim, is real.  The science shows time after time, that both polar ice caps are melting, and faster than anticipated even five years ago.  This alone is enough to concern us all, since it will directly cause the sea level rises.  Study after study shows increasing levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere that are clearly affecting our weather patterns.  There are more tornadoes every year in the US.  Hurricanes and typhoons are more frequent and more powerful.  The frequency of severe weather - whether extraordinarily high rainfall and exceptional flooding, more sustained periods of drought, a greater incidence of uncontrolled forest fires (as far apart as California and Siberia and Australia) or greater snowfall in areas where such events were previously rare - increases year on year.

A friend of mine (well, an old colleague at any rate) insists that there is no such thing as climate change or global warming.  This is all a cyclical variation in normal weather patterns, he says.  But then what does he know?  He's also a rampant Brexit zealot and thus incapable of reasoned discussion.  The Orange Occupant of the White House, President of the biggest polluter of them all, is an even bigger, and hence more dangerous due his position, sceptic.  To him, climate change is all a hoax dreamed up and organised by the Chinese to damage American industry, trade and its economy.  To combat which he increases coal production, grants more fracking licences in the first year in office than in the entire Obama presidency (according to some reports), rolls back environmental protection laws that have been in place for many years, and overrules states like California that take the problem seriously and introduce their own measures to mitigate damage.  Oh, and unilaterally withdraws from the Paris Climate Accords because "they're a bad deal that damages America".  Fuck the planet - America First!

When there are people like this in positions of power, whether politically or in business, then it will remain difficult to change the bleak future that has been predicted.  A period of a mere 11 years (that is the same as my daughter's age - a very short time!) before irreversible climate change tips us over the edge into a difficult and uncertain future is the current estimate.  But some reports suggest that things are happening even quicker and that 11 years projection may in fact be generous.  To be clear: Climate Change cannot now be stopped, the most we can hope to do is slow it and mitigate its effects. 

There are business leaders who have made commitments that will help to do this - in particular the major tech companies like Apple, Google and Amazon, all with commitments to become carbon neutral within a relatively short time span (up to ten years), and all of whom are investing billions of dollars in measures to do so.  There are also a lot of governments who have made grand sounding pledges for their entire countries to become carbon neutral (clearly a much harder thing to achieve) but their time frames are typically in the range of 30 years - so by 2050 - which will of course be far too late.

The problem is the world is still too reliant on carbon fuels - gas guzzling cars and buses and trucks and (worst of all) airplanes, coal and oil burning power plants to provide our electricity to homes and industry.  There are many movements and activists trying to make us all more aware of our carbon footprint and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, take fewer flights and make less car and bus journeys, but in many rural areas and Third World countries these measures are often impractical or at worst impossible to attain.  But the efforts must continue - indeed increase.  There are many sloar farms abd wind turbine farms scattered around the world, and more are needed.  Governments world wide must do their part to move us all away from fossil fuels, the big polluters, towards more sustainable and renewable energy sources.  Whether wind power, solar power, the still untrusted but vital atomic power, and others still theoretical like nuclear fusion, is immaterial.  A mix of all them is needed. 

The issue of course is cost.  All of these changes will cost trillions of dollars to deliver in the time frame available (or close to it) and governments world wide are reluctant to commit these vast sums of money when there are more immediate local problems for them to confront - policing, health care, aging populations, unemployment, border security and terrorism.....to name just a few.  This is quite understandable, but at some point - and some point VERY soon - governments are going to have to bite the bullet and address the climate change catastrophe properly.  The Paris Accords - no mater what Trump may insist - were a decent starting point and one that needs to be built upon, whether or not the US are involved.

And if that means that we, as individuals, have to pay more taxes to fund the investments that will be required then so be it.  If services like power and heating (from whatever source) increase in price then fine.  If we have to drive less and take fewer holiday or business flights (and pay premium prices when we do so) then bring it on.  It seems to me that is a price worth paying to allow life to continue - and hopefully flourish - on this planet of ours.

I hope today's demonstrators, whether in Australia, across Asia, in wealthy Europe and poor Africa and India, and especially in gas guzzling wealthy America, make their local politicians sit up and take notice.  And if they don't I hope they do it again.  And again.  As many times as necessary.

And next time - for there WILL be a next time! - I fully intend to walk with them.