Many people don’t know the following, many more ‘know’ but don’t remember but it is definitely good for your sanity to bear these in mind.
(1) The end date when we stop burning fossil fuels is important, but it is only half the story – CO2 is like pocket money: if we spend it fast, we will have to stop sooner regardless of what we planned, or the climate will react accordingly.
(2) The science says when we stop burning fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere with CO2, global warming will stop more or less immediately.
(3) What we ‘believe’ will happen in the future because of global warming is our own personal conclusion, but we must bear all eventualities in mind. There are some excruciatingly existential scenarios out there in the science with low but significant risk of occurrence.
(4) Many think we need to moderate the rush to change because of the costs to us all. But the climate and our CO2 pollution is very much like a penalty ticket from the police – if you don’t pay up now, then soon enough the penalty doubles. We hate it, we don’t want to do it, but at the end of the day, paying up now is the smart thing to do.
We need to bear these things in mind, especially now at Christmas when we start making plans for the coming year.
