There are many different individual and organized responses to Global Warming. Each individual, country or group of countries (in the case of the EU) has its own approach. This post describes a number of them.
The individual responses are equal to the number of people on the planet. For purposes of this article, I will capture many of these reactions on the part of those remaining inactive in the representative figure of a very intelligent friend of mine. This person who says whether Global Warming is happening or not, humans did not cause it. The idea here is let's just get on with life as it is and hopefully a decent life. The conscious and unconscious motivations for such an approach vary.
Sadly, this is not the extreme point on the side of inaction. The extreme point is represented by the current President of the United States and his business and political allies. This approach is to deliberately oppose and obstruct action to respond to Global Warming and to support the fossil fuel industry.
There are a variety of approaches where people and groups are taking action though in different ways to respond to the challenges of Global Warming. This post will describe some key ones.
One approach is that represented by One Planet. The One Planet approach organizes people to envision and create alternative communities or businesses. These happen at the local level though the stories on the One Planet website enable One Planet to have a global reach. One Planet seems to have an optimistic flavor to it as people envision, create and then begin to live in sustainable communities or businesses. While the need to change environmentally or economically is recognized and responded to, I do not see evidence of dire warnings of threats to humanity in their approach at least as it is set out publically. There is a pronounced emphasis on wellbeing. It is expressed that people can have a good, but different way of life. What is noticeable about the One Planet approach is that people have taken action and are now living in a changed reality at least in their local world.
Greta and the School Strike movement represents another approach. This is a global as well as a highly local campaign. As time has gone on, Greta seems to be more explicit in giving voice to the dire threats to humanity as she did in this speech. The clear message is that we all need to act now because by 2030 the impact of Global Warming may become irreversible. The action that has arisen out of this is that various countries have declared "Climate Emergencies" or become more explicit about their actions under the 2030-2050 goals of the Paris Accord. This does not seem to have yet translated into immediate action, but this may become more evident as countries report in terms of whether they actually did anything.
The Paris Climate Accord is the major global effort to fight Global Warming. In the words of one of its architects, Christiana Fugueres, this reflects stubborn optimism that the people of the planet can through significant effort respond to Global Warming. However, it has become acknowledged that the 2.0 target needs to be replaced by 1.5 and success with this will require countries to do what they said that they were going to do. The role of the U.S. under its current president remains a question mark for the future. There does not seem to be official discussion about dire threats though certainly the threats are acknowledged and various scientific and government reports are regularly referred to. Implemented actions vary from country to country.
The SDG Movement is an outgrowth of the UN-sanctioned efforts in developing 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Various initiatives at national and local levels endeavors to bring the UN goals for a sustainable society to life. There are many detailed guides as to how to accomplish action on a local, community or business level. There are groups like SDG Israel that have advancing awareness of the SDG's as their agenda.
The Israel 2050 Civil Society effort appears to be Israel's major response to the Paris Accord and Global Warming. Currently, things are in a vision-goal setting-planning mode at least amongst some government ministries and their stakeholders. The refrain from this effort is that it is still possible to achieve the 2050, 1.5 goals with significant effort. It also expresses the idea that Israel can maintain its way of life and can have a flourishing economy with reduced carbon and reduced waste. There is a short-term focus on wellbeing though what this will look like is not yet known. There is no public conversation about dire threats. Within Israel, there does not appear to be political pressure from the general public or many public figures to take action now on major, large-scale initiatives related to Global Warming. The formal effort is still at an early stage.
Extinction Rebellion is a relatively new effort that targets both current economic systems as well as the carbon-run world. It is a non-violent movement based on protests and other activities that seek to mobilize people and increase awareness. There is currently no effort to take specific actions to mitigate carbon or waste though admittedly, participants lack the economic and political power to undertake such actions.
Finally, there is the Deep Adaptation movement which specifically acknowledges and articulates dire threats to humanity and the planet. It expresses the idea that Global Society has a likelihood of collapsing by 2030 or soon thereafter based on the irreversible impact of Global Warming. It also expresses the idea that the extinction of Human Sapiens along with many other species is also a possibility even in the near term. The emphasis of this approach is more on wellbeing and adjusting to the possible global catastrophe though it is supportive of efforts to respond to prevent the most dire effects of Global Warming if possible.
Several questions arise from look at these various approaches:
- Is major reform or replacement of the current economic system acknowledged as a required goal for success in fighting Global Warming?
- Is there a belief or acknowledgment that our way of life as it has existed over the last century will not be possible or desirable?
- How far do we go in building alternative communities?
- How much are specific threats to Global Society (collapse) and to Human Sapiens (extinction) in the short term believed, acknowledged and articulated?
- Is there a role for wellbeing and a new kind of relationship to the Earth and other species for Human Sapiens?
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