The prevalent impotence of the 21st century thought.

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Opinion piece by Blazej Wartalski. What can be done about climate change?

Everyone knows that climate change is happening. We have heard about multiple reports by desperate scientists urging world leaders to take action. The situation is indisputable – we are destroying our planet, and at this point only fools and con-men disagree.

However, do we really believe in it? And, if we do, why has no meaningful action has been taken?

Greta Thunberg (the founder of the Youth Strike for Climate movement), a 15-year-old student from Sweden, has recently been nominated for the Nobel Prize for inspiring children from around the globe to walk out from schools, taking their frustration out of the classrooms into the streets, and to protest the general inaction regarding climate change. Let’s be clear – the children know that adults are powerless.

Why are we not able to address the climate change problem? Is it something entirely new for humanity, a world-scale issue almost impossible to comprehend?

This is the time for exploring the unknown, as the degree of cooperation and change is required at levels never seen before. I believe that current nation-states no longer provide us the tools needed to enter the next century without a collapse. Is our impotence in this crisis just an effect of the lack of institutions necessary to find a solution?

To attack our lack of action from another angle, maybe some blame may be directed towards the media? The rubbish passed as ‘solutions’ by some media outlets – if you recycle plastic or use public transportation, you’re doing your part, and are guilt free with nothing to worry about. Great! However, this is a global problem. Such miniscule efforts don’t accomplish much. The only thing they really achieve is a boost to the ego, “you’re saving mother nature” by doing something miniscule.

Only massive collective effort can change humanity’s course. What is necessary to combat climate change is a massive overhaul of our system and cooperation. The Paris Agreement is nice, but it only takes us an inch, it’s not the solution. Even if the Paris Agreement signatories pledged and stayed true to the target, the temperature would still rise above 2 degrees compared to pre-industrial revolution

Maybe action is not being taken because of our apathy? We think we’ll be okay, we live in the wealthy part of the world and can build amazing dams (it’s worth knowing that one third of Netherlands is under the sea level, and they seem to be doing fine).

In the United Kingdom, we will probably not starve due to soon-tocome scarcity of resources. However, the most damaged areas (according to global climate risk index released in 2019) will be the poorest. Notably almost the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Vietnam, are on top of the list for risk. And let’s be honest, we don’t really care about ‘distant’ places like that. UK even decided to cut membership in European Union to be more sovereign. If we don’t trust our neighbouring countries, can it honestly be said that we care about the struggles a little bit further away?

My instinct tells me that this country cares, but not really. If we cared, millions of children would not die of hunger while we overproduce food to the point we throw away 10.000.000 tonnes of food every year in the UK alone.

The question remains unsolved, what is to be done about climate change? What is to replace the system? The answer is yet to be found, but it is certain that what we need most is creativity and a belief that the system can be changed. At some point, things cannot go on as they are. Maybe our desperate impotence is a sign that it is the time to think, not act.