Climate Emergency: Consequences of the Australian Fires?
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Humanity is in a climate emergency ...
If 2019 was the second hottest year on record on the earth’s surface, according to latest research, then I sincerely wonder what we have ahead of us with the skyrocketing climatic changes that seem to plague us.
Gavin Schmidt, of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space studies, said “The last decade was easily the warmest decade in the record and is the first decade more than 1C above late 19th century temperatures."
Do you feel hotter by the day? No, not literally, I meant does the environment around you seem hotter. Do the nights feel warmer than usual? Does the day feel warmer? Wonder why the rain seems to fall more when it’s past its season or fall less during its season?
The Australian fire was just a sure fire proof that the rate of climate change is much more heightened than usual.
What does 'Climate Emergency' mean?
Just think about a 'state of emergency'. A situation which requires urgent attention to tackle an existing problem. Now liken it to the climatic plague that seems to have befallen the earth and in recent times has escalated by a wide margin. Climate emergency is simply an urgent call of action to halt or potentially reduce climate change and other environmental impacts resulting from it.
Who declared the first climate emergency?
The first declaration was in 2016, however, in 2019, the UK became the first country to declare a climate emergency. This was as a result of an 11 day protest that brought London to a standstill, a visit to the parliament by teenage climate activist, Greta Thunberg and the broadcast of David Attenborough’s documentary Climate Change: The Facts.
Climate Emergency and the Australian Fires
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Al Gore blames the climate crisis; Barack Obama says Australia's bushfires are the very real, very urgent consequences of climate change. Hillary Clinton declares we are in a climate emergency.
- The Hill
Before the Australian fires, about 1,024 jurisdictions in 19 countries had declared a climate emergency. As of today, 1250 local governments and 25 countries have declared a climate emergency. Although, scientists have shown that the Australian fires did not occur as a result of climate change, they were simply fuelled up by it. However, if the irrational, nihilistic and laidback response to climate change all over the world had remained unmoved for years, the Australian bushfires crisis was more than enough to hurl the world into a global outlook on our current environmental state and create an urgent reminder of the climate emergency. Undeniably, we have been at the prolonged mercy of political decisions that seem to circumvent the scientific facts that have been proclaimed concerning environmental issues, and now, we are at the 'tilting point' and if left undone, "Collapse will cease to be something we can control. Collapse will no longer be a mere hypothetical; it will be a near certainty. Put bluntly, this is the greatest existential risk facing modern human civilization."
Climate emergency did not just start now, and it's not a call to action for a few days. It's for as long as it takes for man to recognize that climate change is not just affecting the world out there, it's affecting him as well and he needs to do something about it as quickly as possible.
'The resolution acknowledges the threat of climate change on the city and its residence and declares the city's commitment to reducing carbon emissions...'
At least a dozen California cities and hundreds nationally have already declared climate emergencies.
What to do and what not to do
- Do not panic, instead, act.
- Tell somebody to tell somebody
- Join the fight for a Green world.
- Follow hashtags like #climateaction #change #climate
Author:
Bibitayo Omidiora is a content creator, and like so many people in this world, has only just begun to understand the need to partake in the fight to save the earth.
As such, in conjunction with Stac Green Club, we will not stop until we all see the value in what seems like nonsense.
Sources:
Popular Science: Climate change is inevitable but not in the way EPA thinks
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