Only due to COVID-19 did the general public become aware of global warming and our other commensurate crises. This was the 1st benchmark. Those of us who have spent the last 25 years, or more, writing about the coming category-V Hurricanes coming to our shores were, ironically, relieved.
But if we are wise and prescient, what other benchmarks of the 21st century may we be missing?
For if we analyze global warming with any clarity, what is the most important criterion? It is that the four engines of global warming are: the American, Chinese, Western European, and Indian economies, and if you look at the accompanying chart, you can see that they have exponentially increased their CO2 emissions during the past 30 years, and for us to avoid or even seriously mitigate this crisis, they would have to exponentially decrease their CO2 emissions. This is the major criterion that we should be adding and subtracting from instead of just randomly reporting 'positive' and 'negative' things about global warming, and then shrugging our collective shoulders in the media about the probable outcome.
Our public math equation that we wrestle with should look something like this:
The Four Engines of Global Warming + Additional CO2 Emissions - GHG Emission Reductions and Strategies = 500 p.p.m.??????
So if we analyze things in this way, we will quickly realize that global warming is a done deal and that we will reach 500 p.p.m. in 2050, which is the tipping point. With that said, the 2nd benchmark of the 21st century is: America and other countries should be on a war footing right now. We should be creating products and services from cradle-to-cradle, negotiating universal containers and dispensers for beverages, implementing a K-12 curricula to solve not only only our crises but to 'split the atom of human potential' for today's youth, and perhaps, even seizing the oil companies under the Defense Production Act (PDA) to reduce the price of oil (and inflation) and to use all the profits for geo engineering, which we presently don't have.
The 3rd benchmark is: We will engage in a re-evaluation of ourselves as a human species. In essence, during the past fifty years, we have followed 'The Good' and 'The So-called Bottom Line' in business and government - and where has it led us? It has led us to the destruction of the world, a much higher chance of WWIII, an implosion of 50-40 nation states in the next 30 years, and the oppression of easily 3-4 billion people who barely have enough for survival.
The 4th benchmark?
Namely, we need to change our myopic views, that is, collectively change our view from the short-term to the long-term. For far too long, we have been obsessed over quarterly profits, and we have become deaf and blind to the destruction of many eco systems, the vast inequities of wealth, the need to move away from fossil fuels, which could have happened in the 1970s and many other things.
As a result, we face a multi-headed hydra beast.
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