The world was a very different place in 1958, the year I was born. As I turn 60 this week, I’m taking stock — of my own life, the state of the world and the future of our planet. Planet Earth’s future is uncertain as we begin to finally realise what a mess we’ve made of things as we’ve evolved and grown and developed new ways of making our lives easier. These ways have had a profound effect on the natural systems of our world.
Chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration and car exhaust fumes and aerosol spray deodorants and a growing meat eating population demanding more and more flatulent methane gas producing cows have all been, we are (I think reliably) told, responsible for global warming.
This is defined as “a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs, and other pollutants.”
We’ve really made such a hash of things; made our planet sick —but unwittingly I think. Still, the invention of non biodegradable plastic has come back to haunt us. We’re filling our oceans with mountains of trash, we’re poisoning our earth with pesticides, we’re genetically modifying food, or radiating it to make it last longer.
All of this is seen as progress, as us developing into something other than what we were in 1958, the year I was born. We proudly think we’ve come into the “modern” world and made our lives better, and in a lot of ways, we have. But there have been serious consequences, ones we will have to live with as global warming heats up our home.
It’s not a sentiment shared by the most powerful man in the world — the leader of the Free World, buffoon US President, Donald Trump.
He very loudly voiced his scepticism on a climate change report issued by his own government, a document warning of huge economic losses if carbon emissions continue unchecked.
Trump poo-poohed the entire report telling The Washington Post, “I don’t see it,” meaning the veracity of man’s role in helping overheat Earth, adding “One of the problems that a lot of people like myself , we have very high levels of intelligence, but we’re not necessarily believers.”
To make his point, he said the US air and water was at “a record clean”.
So, Trump thinks that the scientists have a political agenda and that the melting ice caps and rising seas would have happened “with or without man”.
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. The US has long defied common global wisdom regarding climate change.
As far back as 1997, they refused to be party to the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty meant to extend the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
Countries were urged to buy into reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Powerhouses America and China refused to sign the protocol, claiming it was an impediment to development and economic growth.
Again in 2017, at the Paris climate accord, Trump withdrew America’s participation.
How did we get here? The planet — our home — is in, and has been in, huge distress and we’ve blithely ignored all the warning signs.
The rot set in early, unwitting acts that we are now paying for. Remember when adverts for cigarettes depicted glamorous people in exotic locations? Remember the Marlboro Man — handsome, rugged, hatted — of the cigarette advert? He died of lung cancer, disproving the fact put out by advertisers that cigarettes were recommended by doctors to help you relax.
The wheat that makes our bread today is very different to that grown in my grandpa’s day. It’s been stripped of its goodness.
We’ve paid little attention to the signs.
In the year I was born, 1958, director Frank Capra, who was also a scientist, made a movie to explain what the world could expect from global warming.
The educational film called Meteora: The Unchained Goddess, focused on climate science. Humankind’s “progress”, the film recorded, was unwittingly hurting the earth. A bleak future — one we’re living through now, and will get worse — was forecast.
But Trump thinks it’s a bit of a joke. During a period of cold weather in 2017, he tweeted: “perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old global warming”.
In fact, rather than redouble their efforts to contain the ravages of climate change, Trump’s administration wants to roll back all of the US’s significant climate efforts.
Scientists have warned that a dramatic increase in natural disasters is on the cards.
As the president denied the possibility of climate change this week, America’s third most intense hurricane (after one in 1935 and another in 1969) made landfall, cutting a swathe of destruction, and claiming many lives.
Warmer oceans create stronger hurricanes, according to the climate experts.
In the 60 years that I have been on this earth, there has been an exponential growth in the rate of change recorded in our natural phenomena.
I’m not sure if it’s too late to change the course we’re on.
Replacing plastic straws with paper or glass ones in restaurants and taking a reusable shopper to do the Woolworths run seems like too little too late.
And then there’s the Trump head in the sand approach. Let’s not worry about the future: let’s live large now and deal with whatever is to come later. Um … actually, let our children and their children deal with the world we’ve ruined. Let them deal with our carelessness.
After all, it’s our time to feed at the trough now. Why ruin that?
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