A vision of a sustainable future told through a compelling story is far more powerful than scientific facts and figures
Crafting a vision for the future
Imagine it’s the year 2050 and we’ve successfully been able to hold global warming below the 2°C threshold (and ideally 1.5°C) the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists have been warning us about.
What does that future world look like and feel like when you imagine it?
Are we more connected to nature or more connected to technology, or both?
How do we communicate and treat one another?
Do our political and economic systems function the same as they do now, or are they drastically different?
Is there more inequality than exists now or less?
Is it an extractive…
Hello readers,
We’re excited to bring you the latest edition of The Current Climate newsletter!
In case you’re new to the publication, our goal with this monthly newsletter is to not only highlight the amazing work of our writers, but also to bring you important climate- and environment-related current events from around the world that you may have missed.
We hope that this newsletter serves as an additional tool to ensure the climate crisis remains at the forefront of our minds, rather than an afterthought.
Introducing Our Newest Editor!
We’d like to formally welcome our newest editor to Climate Conscious, Cameron Catanzano!
Cameron is…
If Biden is serious about dealing with climate change, then he’ll need to get to work quickly and take full advantage of his executive powers
Joe Biden has officially been inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States today, and consequently, will chart a course for this country not only for the next four years, but decades to come.
Many news outlets called the 2020 presidential election the most consequential in history. And such a statement was not unfounded. Indeed, when it comes to dealing with the threats posed by climate change which are numerous and significant, President Biden could mark a crucial turning point from the past four years under Donald Trump.
A day that will certainly go down in the history books
January 6, 2021 will be a day for the history books. It is a day where America’s democracy was pushed to the brink of failure. Democracies are fragile things, not easily conceived and even harder to maintain.
It is a day where an unhinged man and the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, President Donald J. Trump, was directly responsible for purposefully misleading millions of citizens who voted for him into thinking the election was rigged and fraudulent, even though all evidence presented to federal and state courts could not back up these claims with even a single…
And exceeding 2°C isn’t far behind
Article 2 of the Paris Agreement signed in 2016 stated as one of its objectives: “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”
However, the world is currently not on track to avoid 1.5°C of global warming, or 2°C for that matter. In fact, we are currently on track for 3°C of warming by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels. …
Politics isn’t a sport. Yet we keep treating it that way.
Politics shouldn’t be about winning and beating the other side
People who love sports will often use phrases like “We beat them!” or “We won!” when talking about an opposing team. Except they always use the wrong pronoun. It’s not we; it’s they. You’re not on the team, so therefore you didn’t win anything. Nor does the team actually care about you, unless of course you’re buying tickets to see their games or buying their merchandise.
In America, politics has taken on this form of a team sport. The Republicans vs. the Democrats. Talk about a rivalry! Folks from either side can barely stand one another at this point. …
The one question that is never asked in any presidential debate — and probably never will
Foreign policy loses the spotlight
The third presidential debate is scheduled for today and the announced topics will cover the pandemic, race relations, climate change, national security, leadership, and families. In the past though, the final debate has typically focused on foreign policy. With all these topics to cover in today’s debate, foreign policy won’t receive as much attention as it normally would.
This is a shame as foreign policy is incredibly important, especially when it comes to the powers of the president. Understandably, there is less interest from the American public on foreign policy this year with a pandemic still raging out of control…
The fate of humanity rests on collective decision-making based on both sound scientific and moral judgement.
The devil wears many disguises
Imagine the following scenario:
A priest and a climate scientist are debating whether climate change can be attributed to human activity. The priest tells you that humans aren’t affecting the global climate and what we’re experiencing is just due to natural phenomena of which humans have no control. The climate scientist tells you that humans are affecting the global climate through emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity.
Who would you believe?
Now, put your shoes into the mindset of a highly religious individual who values their faith above all else. …
A life spent traveling the natural world only to see the natural world reduced to a fraction of what it once was
“This is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind. There is little left for the rest of the living world.” — David Attenborough, A Life On Our Planet
Seeing the world change around you
The opening scene of A Life On Our Planet is of the desolate wasteland of what was once the city of Pripyat in the Soviet Union (what is now located in Ukraine). The explosion at the nearby Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986 led to the spread of radioactive particles that traveled hundreds of miles and, by some estimates, caused 90,000 deaths. …
The futile search for America’s historical greatness
In one sentence, Republican politicians say, “Make America Great Again.” In the next, they say, “America is the greatest nation on Earth.”
Wait, but don’t those statements contradict each other?
How can you make a country great again if it is already the greatest?
Contradictions aside, both claims seemed completely false and lacked evidence to back them up. To be certain though, I decided to go on a search for America’s historical greatness to try to validate such claims. As you might expect, I came up empty.
The search didn’t take long to conduct because it was almost immediately obvious…
Sean Youra
Engineer and climate activist | Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Climate Conscious | Envisioning a brighter future emerging from solutions to the climate crisis
