Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis (December 2024)

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion Seattle.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” ― Gospel of Thomas

Nation = None (Updated December 2024)

Leader = Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ of Portugal (text version here)

City = Vancouver, B. C.

College = Middlebury in Vermont

Organization = Extinction Rebellion, 350.org, and Olympic Climate Action

Individual = Roger Hallam and Tim DeChristopher

Scientist = James Hansen, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Stefan Rahmstorf (A Shut Off AMOC -- Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Driven by a North/South Saltwater Density Pump -- “is a Distaster We Need to Avoid at All Costs”), Johan Rockström (on a +2 and +3 degree world), and Kevin Anderson (Jun 8, 2023)

Activist = Ken Ward and Valve Turners

Astronaut = Piers Sellers

Former Academic = Jem Bendell

Existential Risks = Luke Kemp

Sociologist = Dana R. Fisher

Humor = The Yes Men

Lawyers = Tim Crosland, Extinction Rebellion spokesperson and Director of Plan B.Earth, Julia Olson, executive director and chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust, Colette Pichon Battle, and Thomas Linzey

Organizer = Bill McKibben

Youth Climate Movement = Greta Thunberg and Xiye Bastida

Musician = Ruth Mundy, Ludovico Einaudi, and Coldplay

Rap Artist = Baba Brinkman

Writer = Thomas Berry, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Dahr Jamail

Artist = Pinar Yoldas, Sean Yoro (HULA), Ruben Orozco's Drowning Girl sculpture, Guy Denning, Lindsay Carron, and contemporary dancer Zol's plastic monster

Explainer = Dave Borlace (The heat may not kill you, but the global food crisis might! - September 17, 2023), and Climate Adam

Police Officers = Rob Cooper, John Curran, and Richard Ecclestone

Dance Performance = KT Nelson's Dead Reckoning 

Thinker = Paul Kingsnorth and Derrick Jensen

Economist = Manfred Max-Neef

Actuary = Sandy Trust 

Climate Prophecy = The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future by Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes

Movie Star = Leonardo DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix, and Russell Crowe

Banker = Mark Carney, Bank of England Governor

Innovator = Dr. Ye Tao (RF Alumnus of Rowland Institute at Harvard) for The MEER:ReflEction Project, Dr. Leslie Field

Oil Company and Media Family Reversals: Rockefeller Brothers Fund and James Murdoch

Irony = JP Morgan Economists David Mackie and Jessica Murray ("leaked report")

Graduate Education Programs = Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Masters of Advanced Studies in Climate Science and Policy (MAS CSP) and Princeton Environmental Research Program

Undergraduate Education Programs = York University's (Toronto, Canada) Bachelor in Environmental Studies; University of California at Santa Cruz; University of Washington, Seattle's Program on the Environment; and Australian National University.

Climate Lifeboats of the Rich and Famous?

For many years, I told my creative writing students to listen deeply for circles, threads, and connections.  I laughed when it was widely reported the world's second richest man, Bill Gates ($96.5 billion), bought -- then didn't buy -- Sinot's AQUA, "the world's first hydrogen-powered yacht for $650 million" according to businessinsider.com' s Taylor Gorden, and other reporters. It was like when the world's wealthiest man, Amazon's Jeff Bezos ($131 billion), allegedly bought -- then didn't buy -- "one of the worlds largest and most luxurious super yachts Flying Fox" according to stuff.co.nz's John Anthony, and other reporters.

These yes -- no -- reports are like the dead parrot scene in Monty's Python's sketch about the "resting" Norwegian Blue.

Maybe these two yacht reports are slick advertising campaigns, or just plain wrong. Maybe not. I guess if Gates and Bezos can't go to Mars yet to escape or wait out climate chaos, the sea may be the next best thing. About a week ago "Jeff Bezos Commit[ed] $10 Billion to Address Climate Change" according to New York Times' Karen Weise so climate is on his mind.

As John Lennon sang, "Strange days indeed" in his song "Nobody Told Me."

Two Charts Showing What 2 C, 3 C, 4 C, and 5 C Mean. Global Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) Agreed to in Paris in 2016 Were 3.5 C (6.3 F) Over Pre-Industrial Levels, and Global Emissions Are Still Rising.

Used with permission of Datawrapper.

Update: Dave Borlace, citing a 2019 IPCC report, noted "It's actually more like about 5 degrees Celsius higher [ . . . . ] within 80 years or so at our current trajectory."

Update: The Guardian, at Rockström's request, changed the quote below for a 4 C world to "It’s difficult to see how we could accommodate eight billion people or maybe even half of that."

Climate Action Tracker was updated November 2021 showing  many countries improved their plans relative to 1.5 C Paris Agreement Compatibility. Previously, India was "2 C COMPATIBLE," USA and Russian Federation trajectories put us at a "4 C + WORLD" and were labeled "CRITICALLY INSUFFICIENT." As noted above, a "4 C + WORLD" means "Deadly heatwaves every summer, hundreds of drowned cities, devastation of the majority of eco-systems, more tipping points are crossed, leading to intensified warming." Earth's "most likely scenario + 3.2 C" brings "High risk of reversing of carbon cycle triggering runaway warming spiral. Droughts and famine for billions of people, leading to chaos and wars."

There is even more bad news. Amanda Erickson noted in the Washington Post October 11, 2018, "Few countries are meeting the Paris climate goals." It's small comfort "the rate of emissions growth is lower than in the previous 2 years" according to a February 3, 2020 article by CORDIS at phys.org.  That's like a doctor saying "Yes, on this course the patient is terminal, but she is dying more slowly than before."  Given all this, Extinction Rebellion's second demand makes sense: "Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025."

In a previous post I wrote, "Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, [noted] at 4 C above preindustrial 1850 baseline, 'It’s difficult to see how [Earth] could accommodate a billion people or even half of that.' I have also written the IPCC report noted 'Coral reefs, for example, are projected to decline by a further 70–90% at 1.5°C (high confidence) with larger losses (>99%) at 2°C (very high confidence).' I have seen pushback claiming humanity is not in a climate crisis, but tell that to the estimated 500 million to 1 billion people depending on those coral reefs for food and/or jobs that will clearly be lost unless some miracle science, not yet invented, saves them."

I agree with James Baldwin, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

Climate Grief

About 9 years ago, my life partner of 6 years died suddenly and unexpectedly. She was laughing and joking at breakfast, and nearly gone by evening. My mom, dad, and companion animal, about the same time, also suffered horrible deaths. The family thought mom had the flu, but it was much worse. One moment we were talking at the dinner table, and shortly after, I and paramedics were unable to save her. I will spare you the gory details. The Tibetan Buddhist idea of "impermanence" I teach in World Literature was becoming clear. The point is my grief counselor taught me 4 things that may help those waking up to climate reality, and suffering climate grief:

1) "Emotions come through in waves. Accept the waves."

2) "Take time to grieve, and not to grieve."

3) "Know you will feel different tomorrow than today."

4) "Understand the importance of storytelling in healing."

As the climate crisis necessarily accelerates, because, as Brian Kahn on December 3, 2014, at climatecentral.org noted, "CO2 Takes Just 10 Years to Reach Planet’s Peak Heat," more people will wake up and grieve. There seems to be a natural grieving process when, for example, a Jan. 14, 2020, Los Angeles Times article “An Australia in flames tries to cope with an ‘animal apocalypse.’ Could California be next?” reported "Scientists estimate that, so far in Australia, fires have killed from hundreds of millions to more than 1 billion native animals," or students see one koala bear rescued. Similarly, it was stressful when The International Organization for Migration, “a related agency of the UN system” (according to its Website), reported in 2015 “Current forecasts for the number of climate induced migrants by 2050 vary between 25 million and one billion, depending on various climate scenarios, the adaptation measures taken and other political and demographic factors.4” A Sep. 12, 2019 Vice magazine article, citing The International Organization for Migration, updated the number to as high as “1.5 billion.”

Even climate scientists are grieving. As I wrote in a previous post, “Scientist and Forbes writer James Conca noted September 10, 2019, ‘To bring this home, all you have to do is see how climate scientists are seeking psychiatric help for the depression, anxiety and PTSD that happens when you see a train wreck coming but no one seems to want to do anything about it - and you’re on the train.’"

Previously, I posted about "Climate Scientists Expressing Nightmare/Anger/Fear/Gratitude/Other Feelings." In the first letter, Professor Stefan Rahmstorf, Head of Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, wrote "Sometimes I have this dream. [par break] I’m going for a hike and discover a remote farm house on fire. [par break] Children are calling for help from the upper windows. So I call the fire brigade. But they don’t come, because some mad person keeps telling them that it is a false alarm."

NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus' 2018 Yes! Magazine article "The Best Medicine for My Climate Grief" clarified what was coming, and yesterday's Guardian article by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, "‘The only uncertainty is how long we’ll last’: a worst case scenario for the climate in 2050," shows where we may be going barring major changes for better or worse.