I also agree that the world does need to get off of its dependency on fossil fuels as soon as possible, but I am also a realist. I know that we cannot do it unless there are alternative sources of energy developed to replace fossil fuels, and here is why.
Suppose that the politicians did listen to Greta's plea and banned the use of fossil fuels today. What this would mean for all of us tomorrow? First, it would mean no air travel because jet fuel is made of fossil fuels, which means that Greta will not travel from Sweden to speak in New York, Montreal or anywhere else for that matter. It also would mean that she nor anyone else would be able to travel by plane or boat anywhere either,nor transport anything. So, we would not be able to transport any goods around the world and we could only use what we can produce in our local areas, which includes basic life necessities such as food. That means no food export, import or aid from countries that produce extra food to the countries that don't produce enough. This in turn would mean death by starvation to millions of people simply due to lack of food. Would that be justice? The same thing with medical aid. No global medication transport either. How would we help victims of environmental disasters?
Millions of people, especially, those in developed countries with diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and many others would die without their medications. What will people do when they are hungry and doomed to die because they cannot get food nor medication? They would riot, so we might add to our scenario social unrest and violence. This is the reality. Fossil fuels helped to create comfort and prosperity that we all benefit from now. It also helped to lift billions of people out of poverty. It is not only the "rich" who benefited, but more so the poor. It is easy to talk only about negative consequences of Industrial Revolution, but are we prepared to go back to the lifestyle of the 1800's?
The Climate Change movement, if it wants to succeed, must demand things that can be done now and the activists must understand what it takes to create the world independent of fossil fuels. It would take drastic changes in lifestyle of nearly everyone on the planet. The politicians cannot do much of themselves without cooperation from their citizens, unless they become dictators, and we know that dictatorships are not great for the environment. China is the greatest example of that fact. It is really up to each one of us to change. I hope that Greta's generation would make those changes instead of just shouting slogans. I hope the brightest of them would get an education that will allow them to develop alternative fuels.I hope that they will stop buying and driving gasoline cars and walk, bike, or take public transit unless they can afford an electric vehicle. This is what I am doing by the way.
I hope that some of them would begin to construct affordable and green housing, begin producing local organic foods, and stop buying things that they don't really need. I hope that each one of them would begin to live in environmentally friendly way and teach it to their children instead of pledging to have none. This is something that I have done as well. Our family has only one fuel efficient car. I take bus to school most days of the week, and walk anywhere I can.We buy mostly local foods. As a general rule, we buy what we need and use reusable materials. Our electricity comes from hydro power and solar sources. Many people made many of these changes. Our emissions are going down, but it does cost us more.
The environmental activists complain that it is the greed of corporations that drive the pollution, but they would not be able to do that if we did not buy their products, so again the ball is in our own court. Also the environmentalists need to stop ignoring the science and acknowledge that human activity is not the only cause of climate change, and that besides lowering the emissions, we have to adapt to climate changes as well because there are forces impacting our climate that we cannot control such as changes on the Sun, changes in the earth's magnetic field, and changes of the very axis of the earth, which are all being presently ignored. That means that we have to relocate threatened communities, stop building too close to the ocean, build bigger barriers to withstand higher storm surges, and we cannot do that if we destroy our economy by getting off of the fossil fuels now before alternatives are ready.
It is possible to marry economic growth with environmental responsibility, and we will have to do that to deal with consequences of the damage we have already done. Getting off of fossil fuels now is a nice sounding slogan, but as I argued above it would mean adding more salt to the wounds of people who struggle with the impact of climate change by taking away the ability to help them in any way and that is not justice at all.
The world will not end in 8 years even if the world temperature rises to 1.5 degrees. But if we set realistic goals and will all make needed changes, we can deal with the consequences of that. The environment has a great way of bouncing back if we treat it responsibly. Responsibility and adaptation is what is needed.The Bible teaches us that the earth is waiting and longing for mankind to begin walking with God. Walking with God means taking responsibility for our environment.
Author's Note: Image the courtesy of Wikipedia
