[MCN] Thinking about climate change? Where will you be on April 15 ?

[Lance Olsen]

Extinction Rebellion claims that when just 3.5 % of the population demands change, governments will cave to the pressure
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/10/will-you-rise-climate-justice-next-week-dont-let-fatalism-and-cynicism-hold-you? <https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/10/will-you-rise-climate-justice-next-week-dont-let-fatalism-and-cynicism-hold-you?>

Excerpt:  April 15 will initiate an international week of rebellion <https://rebellion.earth/next/> led by the UK’s Extinction Rebellion <https://rebellion.earth/>, part of a global wave of movements demanding governments take bold action on climate change. Part of this wave is the youth movement Fridays for Future <https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/>, which continues to hold weekly school strikes with an impressive global turnout on March 15 <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2019/mar/15/climate-strikes-2019-live-latest-climate-change-global-warming>. In the US, the youth-led Sunrise Movement <https://www.sunrisemovement.org/> is actively working to gain support for the Green New Deal <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/26/green-new-deal-climate-change-democrats>. And Extinction Rebellion has continued to garner widespread attention through disruptions <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/17/thousands-gather-to-block-london-bridges-in-climate-rebellion> and creative stunts <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/01/semi-naked-climate-protesters-disrupt-brexit-debate> that put a wrench in the current system.
This momentum to address climate change is unprecedented and impressive. But given that most of us deeply care about climate change, shouldn’t there be more people of all ages participating?  Recent polls in the US <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/22/climate-change-concern-americans-poll> and in the UK <https://www.clientearth.org/british-public-supports-urgent-action-and-litigation-on-climate-change-poll-reveals/> show that about two thirds of all citizens are very concerned about climate change. In addition, citizens want government to take meaningful action <http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/the-green-new-deal-has-strong-bipartisan-support/>. Given that governments are not representing the majority of their citizens and are instead leading us toward climate catastrophe, why aren’t more people rising up to demand meaningful climate policy?

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"… the race between climate dynamics and  climate policy will be a close one …."

Hans Joachim Schellenhuber. 
“Global warming: Stop worrying and start panicking?” 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2008

Opening paragraph

"In their excellent Perspectives article in this issue (1 <https://www.pnas.org/content/105/38/14239#ref-1>), Ramanathan and Feng (R&F) sound a harsh wake-up call for those concerned about anthropogenic climate change: the authors maintain that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the past have already loaded the Earth System sufficiently to bring about disastrous global warming. 

"In other words, the ultimate goal of climate protection policy, as stipulated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (2 <https://www.pnas.org/content/105/38/14239#ref-2>), appears to be a delusion."

[ open access ] https://www.pnas.org/content/105/38/14239 <https://www.pnas.org/content/105/38/14239>

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“The climate scientist James Hansen has called two-degree warming “a prescription for long-term disaster.”

Robert Watson, a former director of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has argued that three-degree warming is the realistic minimum. 

The prospect of a five-degree warming has prompted some of the world’s leading climate scientists to warn of the end of human civilization.”

<<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html>>>

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