One big difference between the world today and the world of tomorrow will be trees.

We will have a lot more trees in cities.

We will have trees in fields where crops grow.

We will have trees in pasture where animals graze.

Trees protect us from the hot sun and trap moisture for other growing things. And they sequester carbon.

Sun blazing down on asphalt won't seem acceptable as temperature goes up. We'll need trees to provide shade and keep cities liveable.

#ClimateChange

David Suzuki says it's time to get off fossil fuels — sooner, rather than later — and he also says those of us in the wealthy Global North must change our lifestyles, shifting away from overconsumption.
__________________________

How bad does it have to get before the world wakes up?

Unless we reject the widespread power and influence of the fossil fuel industry in all aspects of our lives, we could reach the point of no return before we employ the many available and emerging solutions.

Industry puts massive resources into convincing people that curbing the crisis will cause too much hardship. Shell chief executive Wael Sawan recently offered an example. “What would be dangerous and irresponsible is cutting oil and gas production so that the cost of living, as we saw last year, starts to shoot up again,” he told the BBC.

Shell had planned modest production cuts but backtracked under Sawan’s leadership, instead enriching its executives and shareholders in the wake of fuel prices driven up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As global temperatures exceed record highs, so too do the profits of companies such as Shell.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation offer numerous advantages over fossil fuels beyond climate benefits. Along with energy storage, technologies including wind and solar have advanced much faster than experts predicted, and costs have dropped to the point where they’re far lower than coal, oil, and gas prices.

The only ones who don’t reap massive benefits from a rapid transition away from fossil fuels are the relatively few who profit enormously by monopolizing supplies, production, and distribution of gas, oil and coal — and the politicians and media supporters on the receiving end of their donations and ad dollars.

That doesn’t mean shifting from fossil fuels to cleaner energy will be painless. We might have to curtail or give up luxuries, and the overconsumption, to which we’ve become accustomed — especially in wealthier parts of the world. For example, although electric vehicles are far better than gas-burners, private SUVs and automobiles for everyone aren’t sustainable over the long term regardless of how they’re powered.

But the transition won’t be as painful as the fossil fuel industry wants you to believe — although the more we delay in taking the much-needed steps, the more difficult it will be.

The only records we should be breaking now are in the speed at which we adopt healthier ways to live and to power our societies — without fossil fuels.
__________________________

FULL ARTICLE -- https://rabble.ca/environment/scorching-climate-records-call-for-real-solutions/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

The top 5 measures to halve emissions by 2030 as identified by IPCC are wind, solar, energy efficiency, stopping deforestation, and cutting methane emissions. This require no new technology but lacks political will.

Read more on this IPCC climate optimism chart:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/20/down-to-earth-ipcc-emissions