Growing Up

Halloween was fun, princesses and superheroes.

But it's a scary world we live in.
It's the ordinary people,
taking care of business
while ignoring the cost of doing business:
floods,
drought,
famine,
heat domes,
monster storms,
rebellions,
wars,
wildlife decline,
extinctions,
tipping points,
collapse.

What's a person supposed to do?

Avoid the news.
Ignore the evidence.
Distrust those who know.
Deny what's coming.
Listen to what we want to hear.
Blame the scientists.
Blame government.
Blame the elite.
Blame corporations.
Blame larger populations elsewhere.
Blame the victims.
Practice psychic numbing.
Withdraw from community.
Load the guns and start shooting.
Make excuses.
Give up.
Shrug and carry on.
Pretend to fix things while breaking them.
Get all we can while we can get it.
Leave it up to the experts.
Leave it up to the government.
Leave it up to God.

Or pay attention
and grow up.

This picture was taken back when we slept in a chilly attic room in Gram and Poppy's house, just before we moved into a nice new house of our own with a coal-fired furnace. A few things have changed since then including climate.

Yes, I am writing about climate change, as usual. I learned about the greenhouse effect at university, and taught it in high school science classes for 33 years. Back then I was too busy dealing with teenagers to do much about global warming. However, at various times I have tried out all of the behaviours in the list above (except loading and shooting). I know them inside out, so I can write about them with some confidence.

Anyone younger can do better than me. It is important to work through the list and grow up as quickly as we can. COP27 is going to tell us what we already know, that we will likely fail to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and there is much worse coming than we have seen so far. No time to waste. Pay attention and grow up fast.

So what is the plan? How will you and I get to net zero?

I was going to recount my own efforts, beginning with walking or cycling 8 km to work and back home (uphill both ways, in all kinds of weather), and ending with the heat pump we just had installed that will reduce our estimated residential energy use from 73 to 40 GJ/year, and our estimated annual carbon dioxide emissions from 4.0 to 2.1 tonnes. There have been many steps which I won't include in my brag list.  There are also many worrying steps left to get to net zero. When we know there is a problem, doing something about it is the ultimate grownup response, and we are growing up too slowly.

Since I was born 81 years ago, global carbon emissions have increased by a factor of 9. Canada is one of the highest per capita emitters of carbon dioxide in the world. Global emissions in 2021 were the highest levels on record. If we continue as we are going, the global increase in average temperature above pre-industrial levels will reach 2.8°C by 2100, with catastrophic results. One troubled lifetime remains after I'm gone. And then what?

Pay attention.
Consider what to do.
Do something.
Rejoice at success.
Learn from failure.
Decide what to do next.
Don't lose hope.
Forget hope and do what's right.
Grow up.

We can do this.
Grownup steps.
Uphill but feels good.