UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed the conventional wisdom that "Human activity is the cause of the climate problem. So human action must be the solution." Sadly, though, humans have proved incapable of marshaling the actions and behaviors necessary to halt expected climate catastrophes. That's why a human bypass is called for--a solution that drops the expectation that humans will make the sacrifices necessary to stop climate change.
To defeat climate change virtually all governments and humans must adopt extreme conservation measures. This means serious personal sacrifices, including choosing to save the planet over saving jobs in the fossil fuel and other industries. When the viability of life is under assault the only acceptable action is the laser focus on survival. And clearly, humans have revealed the inability to act on that principle, exposing a deadly flaw in human nature. Because extreme sacrifice has not happened and will not happen there is not enough time, according to the ticking climate doomsday clock, to mobilize, implement, and scale current limited measures and proposed projects in time to forestall disasters.
Much of the climate change crisis can be traced to humans surrendering the priority of self-preservation from the list of leading behavioral instincts. Scientists have always considered self-preservation to be the number one biological instinct. But tragically, it has been replaced by ignorance, faulty ideologies, the pursuit of immediate gratifications, and greed.
After condensing the lifespan of our planet since its creation to 24 hours a National Geographic documentary concluded that humans have existed for about 3 seconds of the earth's lifespan and wondered if humans, having wrecklessly damaged the planet, will last for the next second. The documentary makes it clear that the problem "is us." Cockroaches will surely outlast humans because they don't have distracting ideologies or conspracy theories. Their self-preservation instinct chooses life, which enables them to survive. And that's true throughout the animal kingdom, except for us humans.
Over the past few decades, treaties have been repeatedly broken, and major polluters have failed to meet their commitments. Add to these failures the expansion of fossil fuel use due to periodic disruptions in the supply chain, the reversal in policies to preserve rain forests, and the canceling of treaties when government administrations change.
It now appears that a vast entrenched self-serving climate-change industry in government, the corporate world, and academia--an "industry" that once offered hope for defeating climate change--may be working against a solution while promoting illusory promises. We, humans, have invested billions in countless climate projects around the globe over the past few decades. And an army of recruited climate change advocates has reported on the frightening planetary degradation. The Climate Reality Project alone boasts 42,000 climate ambassadors in 174 countries whose mission is to alert the public to the crisis. Despite these efforts, the world is in worse shape than when Al Gore's groundbreaking 2006 film, An Inconvenient Truth, was released . Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "has hit a historic high, shooting up to levels not seen for 4 million years" according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As a result, we are experiencing a surge in worldwide disasters, including dangerous air pollution from out-of-control forest fires and the highest temperatures ever recorded.
Has the media been lax in in not demanding that we reassess the colossal failure of all efforts to halt climate change? Early in the fight against climate change, the media was at the forefront of calling for effective action. Now we see a focus on "if it bleeds it leads" reporting on the suffering wrought by climate extremes. The lead story in the New York Times on July 21, 2023, was about the devastating effects on the elderly of the lengthy heatwave in Europe now called the new COVID for the elderly. One 75-year-old woman in Rome Italy struggled with temperatures as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit without air conditioning or a fan. A 91-year-old woman improvised a piece of cardboard as a fan for cooling. The article praised governments and agencies for coming to the rescue by providing various forms of assistance for the elderly to mitigate the deadly effects of extreme weather. Is the best we have to offer after all the programs and investments to fight climate change makeshift personal cooling strategies and evacuation to cooling centers? Where is the outrage? Where is the demand to face the truth about our failures? Who is exposing the continuation and extension of programs that have brought us to this dangerous moment? Where is the call for a realistic assessment of what will and will not defeat climate change along with a plan--no matter how demanding--that could work?
At the 2022 COP27 Sharm el-Sheikh International Climate Change Conference, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres presented his terrifying assessment. He warned that the world is on a "highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator." He added that we are close to tipping points of no return with as little as six years to avert the worst consequences. Did the Sharm el-Sheikh presentations then offer brakes rather than acceleration? Hardly. There was little evidence that the code red alarm was heard. Instead, presenters proudly talked with enthusiasm, hope, and pride about their success in achieving funding for introducing and expanding projects which even if fully completed would have little impact on the rapid advance toward "climate hell." That disregard for urgency to achieve net zero greenhouse emissions persists. Typical of many countries and industries, the UN maritime shipping agency just set the year 2050 as the target of net zero from shipping for its 175 member countries--a date decades past the climate catastrophes predicted by scientists.
It's obvious that humans will not make the necessary sacrifices to stop climate change. Humans are clogging the arteries of efforts to defeat climate change making an emergency bypass the only chance of beating the doomsday clock. And that bypass solution is science--several projects that collectively could stop climate change. However, because we have previously not recognized the need for a human bypass the scientific solution at this late date is at best a desperate "Hail Mary" action in the hope of a miracle.
The most
promising science solution is nuclear fusion, which could provide unlimited
clean energy with virtually no radioactive waste. Recent breakthroughs in nuclear fusion in the U.S. at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and at the UK's Jet Laboratory have verified its viability. But estimates based on
current relatively skimpy funding for this nascent technology reportedly could
take decades to reach full functionality. A "Hail Mary" pass, with
massive funding, could possibly change that. Then add a thousand-mile fast-charging EV battery, which could mark the end of the polluting combustion
engine. Completing the miracle trifecta is achieving full functionality
for carbon capture technology, which can remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
The good news is that science has a track record for miracles. If
you have any doubt, see "Oppenheimer," the new film about the creation of the
atomic bomb. It will serve as a convincing reminder that given a strong
creative structure--the Manhattan Project--a pool of brilliant scientists, firm
leadership, sufficient financial resources, and determination (to
beat Germany and Japan to the bomb) science can manifest a miracle. Placing an
astronaut on the moon in 1969 in less than a decade was just as miraculous.
Even more encouraging scientists knew less about nuclear power and space travel
than they know today about climate science.
We repeatedly hear the word "compromise" along with announcements of "historic and unprecedented" funding for climate change defeating projects. Compromise has become a presumed necessity to appease deniers and other opposing forces. Self-preservation though permits no compromises.
It's tme to face the truth about "us" and commit to a human bypass operation by passing the baton to science, the only path that holds any possibility of stopping the deafening sound of the clicking doomsday clock.
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