Title: Climate Crisis is here: Why can’t society deal with it and how can we?
Abstract:
The climate crisis has several distinct parts. The rapid burning of the fossil fuels is heating the planet as the greenhouse gases increase (primarily CO2, water vapor and also methane). Heat is stored mostly in the oceans and reflective ice and snow are melting, so that winters and the polar regions are waming the fastest. This is turn is driving rapid climate change on a global scale.
Society has failed to deal with this crisis because policy is dictated by the rich and powerful and the corporations that are linked to the fossil fuel empire whose goal is to maximize profit. Webs of lies about climate change have been used for 40 years to confuse the public, and politicians have been bribed (in the USA) to oppose climate legislation. This misuse of human power is historic and it means most decisions are made without ethics or wisdom. Scientific research is expected to work within this frame. However a stable climate is incompatible with business-as-usual, since it treats the earth system as simply there to be exploited for profit.
The reality is the indigenous understanding of the living Earth system is correct and it really is the “Truth that will set us free” from the business lies. I realized fifty years ago that a climate crisis was coming because no-one accepted responsibility for the Earth. In parallel with my research I spent decades exploring and listening to the living Earth until I could see some of the historical and present issues. Since human societies have refused to deal with the climate crisis, the living Earth system is now selecting climate modes to deal with our industrial society. This is difficult for scientists and society to grasp; but we have no choice because the living Earth system has powers, insights and responsibilities that are far beyond humanity.
Biography:
Alan Betts completed his PhD at the age of 25 years from Imperial College, London. He is the director of Atmospheric Research and a climate advisor to Vermont. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the Royal Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the author of more than 175 reviewed papers in the scientific literature. He was the the AMS Jule Charney Award winner in 2007. In 2016, Alan Betts was the first recipient of the Bert Bolin Global Environmental Change Award from the American Geophysical Union. Atmospheric Research was established in Vermont in 1979 to understand the Earth’s weather and climate, and to help society understand the existential challenge of global climate change and how to deal with it.
