5. Figure out how to adapt to the massive changes coming — one metre sea level rise, hundreds of millions of climate refugees, climates too hot to grow food. LINK
Professor Lovelock’s “solutions” were in generalities without stating an actual plan that could be implemented to alleviate our situation, and it is a viable course of action we need to achieve the goals he states are necessary to mitigate climate change - which in turn, will alleviate hunger, desperation, and the massive amount of deaths that climate change is predicted to cause. The world is running out of drinking water and the ability to irrigate crops in several areas of the world, causing food prices to rise, and it the poor and desperate in many nations that are lashing-out without hope of a brighter future that is adding to an uncertain future. Obviously, if we are to resolve these issues, the first matter on the agenda is to solve the issue of water for irrigation and human/animal consumption, and the only viable solution is huge desalinization plants on a scale that staggers the imagination.
Approximately 60% of the world’s desalinization plants are located in the Middle-East, the largest of which is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) in the United Arab Emirates. It is a dual-purpose facility that uses multi-stage flash distillation and is capable of producing 300 million cubic meters of water per year. (Source: Wikopedia) Desalinization plants, built on a massive scale will mitigate the effects of climate change if they are large enough, and unfortunately, must be nuclear powered to be effective; using fossil fuels for this purpose defeats their ultimate purpose, and although I’m against nuclear power plants, we have the technology to build them safely – and because we have been such poor stewards of earth’s precious resources, nuclear power is the only answer to run the massive plants that will be needed to impact climate change. Some of these nuclear powered desalinization plants will need to be dual-purpose, using nuclear power to operate the plant as well as generating electricity for the local population(s).
Imagine building hundreds of these, larger than that which is described above, and using/selling the water to massive farms that would be located in several key locations in Africa and other countries. (We may have to lease the land, adding to that countries income, not to mention the massive amount of labor that would be required to operate actual farm complexes, which would create even more income for those nations.) Imagine 500,000 or 1,000,000 acre commercial farms, built in tear-drop configurations so the wildlife can still co-exist and move around them as they would a mountain or other natural barrier. These farms would grow wheat, corn, soy and other essentials that could be sold worldwide and would contribute to price-drops in food on a global basis. The profit for water sales and the crops, a percentage of which would go to the host country would in the long term, pay for the construction and maintenance of the desalinization/power plants as heretofore described.
Consider the economic impact to Africa, and other third world nations where people are so poor they cannot fight the epidemics that plague their societies on their own and have to rely upon donations and the efforts of other global organizations that are helping to fight these health issues – but soon after reaping the profits from the leases and percentage of the crop sales, and the jobs which would be created could begin to change their “third world” status, and becoming a major exporter of essential crops, the economy and life in Africa and other suitable nations with huge tracts of arid, underdeveloped lands would change dramatically. The location of these “super farms” would be dictated by the scientific community based on the probability of them not being inundated by rising sea levels and other factors which include, but are not limited to mean temperature, suitability of the actual soil and terrain, among other factors.
While I’ll admit that desalinization plants will not be enough to stop the encroachment of our oceans upon low-lying cities and countries all over the globe, enough of these plants operating 24 hours per day will make an impact and help to mitigate the rise of our oceans everywhere, and again, another “cause and effect” will also occur – and it is an “intended consequence” that nature herself will accomplish. If we work to turn vast areas of Africa and other arid areas into productive farmland and send countless millions of gallons of water to irrigate them, some of the water will evaporate into the atmosphere and rain will begin to fall in areas which historically were dry and barren. The very face of the earth will begin to change, and with an abundant and inexpensive food supply being created, prosperity will begin to replace hunger and desperation.
Through sheer ignorance and greed, we are destroying approximately 2.7 MILLION ACRES OF RAINFOREST PER YEAR! Again, we come to the issue of cause and effect; vegetation of all types is the cleansing agent for our atmosphere, and the destruction of these rainforests is reducing earth’s ability to produce oxygen and possibly even of more importance – reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in our air. If we “green-up” vast areas of our earth with productive farmlands, it will help to mitigate some of the rainforest loss, the staggering loss of forests in the US which have been burnt because of drought conditions and ultimately, will help to eventually cleanse the atmosphere. The logic is inescapable – but plans of this sort will only have an impact if they are carried out on a massive scale.
The US is experiencing one, if not the worst drought in its history, and rather than us working to mitigate these issues, we also choose to spend our dwindling wealth on war rather than peace. The drought was so severe this year that crops of all sorts are significantly lower than usual, and food prices are skyrocketing because of improper government management. We all knew that climate change was coming; however politics and greed influenced our decisions to disregard sound scientific evidence and instead, chose to tow the “corporate line” rather than attend to the heath and welfare of our own country.
We have learned an extremely important lesson from China, and as they have expanded their agriculture and used fertilizers that were harmful to the environment, their foods are actually contaminated and many of their food products are in fact dangerous as it pertains to human consumption. If we choose to learn from their plight, it should spur industry to develop safer methods of fertilizing the crops, and another segment of many nation’s industries will benefit and profit from supplying these important ingredients to agriculture in new farmlands that will arise – and again, business will profit from the expansion of the world’s new-found food supplies.
Those nations whose economies are based on developing and manufacturing the tools of war will be able to amass huge contracts for building these essential desalinization plants, and instead of relying on war to drive their economies, they will find it more profitable to engage in building the tools we need to mitigate climate change. This danger to our survival as a species cannot be accomplished by one “Super-Power” or even two, but the cooperation of all of the industrialized nations of the world, and in doing so, jobs and profit will be created by applying their technical knowledge and expertise to build the tools we need to mitigate the climate change crisis, and each and every country which is involved will reap the benefits of a wealth of high-tech jobs as well as the thousands of support industries that would also spring-up to supply the parts and pieces that will be necessary to begin reversing what we have foolishly done to our home, Mother Earth. It’s no secret that the United States, my home, is close to financial collapse from fighting endless wars, and as one of the nations that has much of the world’s nuclear and high-tech expertise, our economic woes as well as other nations would be solved relatively quickly as the contracts and jobs begin rolling back into our own country and those who also have the expertise to contribute to such a massive project.
We also have to raise the awareness of the necessity of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and manufacturing and deploying massive wind-farms will help in that matter, and in the areas that are poor and underdeveloped, wind power could bring electricity to millions, enhancing their lives and allowing them to become residents of the 20th century rather than living in the past, which progressively becomes harder to do as we witness the world changing so rapidly. We have learned that “terrorists” are born from despair, flocking to the radical religious recruiters who offer them food and shelter, and then indoctrinate them with radicalism to create the soldiers of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Abundant food, water, and hope of a better life will help to drain the armies of terrorism from gaining new recruits, thus helping to quash the rise of radical Islam.
It will be necessary to enlist the aid of the global community to drive less, and on days off, choose to stay home, or at least remain closer than they usually do for recreation and rest. It is imperative that the global community manage the oil we have left and conservation, taken seriously by the global community, will cause a huge drop in the price of oil, again alleviating the high costs of heating and cooling our homes as well as the burden these current prices cost everyone for commuting to work.
Financing
It’s obvious that this endeavor will require huge amounts of money, and that’s where the World Bank comes in, and as long as it’s structured in a way that we know there will be a return on their investment in real dollars, it can be done, although it will take a unified global approach to make it happen. We have to be realistic and understand that no one is going to expend the money and energy necessary to bring forth a global effort that dwarfs anything mankind has ever attempted unless it’s profitable and benefits everyone, not just a few singular nations. As we discussed, it is not a political endeavor, but a fight to alleviate the suffering, death, starvation, and utter chaos that will occur if we don’t work to make it happen.
Why Do We Need A Separate Global Peace Movement Other Than The United Nations?
While I commend the United Nations for their work in helping to awaken the world to the danger that mankind faces in this hour of crisis due to global warming and the consequences thereof, the UN, by its very nature, is a highly charged “political” body, and members vote the interests of their own countries first, often protecting their own national interests at the expense of the global community. The solution and planning to mitigate climate change and seek to replace war with peace cannot be based on politics, but must represent the interests of the world at large - and to effectively plan and awaken the world for the need to establish a global initiative which is not politically motivated, it must be a body of individuals that cast politics aside and attend to the health and welfare of the world, not individual nations.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
