The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres admitted that the countries of the world who signed the Paris Climate accords are “light years” away from achieving their goals.

 

Yet there is someone who is not so pessimistic–Katharine Hayhoe. Christiane Amanpour who interviewed her on her PBS television show called Hayhoe “refreshingly ungloomy.” She is an atmospheric scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University as well as the Director of the Climate Science Center. Not only that she is an evangelical Christian.

 

Hayhoe is the author recently of a book called Saving Us: A Climate scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. As Hayhoe said,

“The Paris Climate agreement is like a potluck dinner. Each country bringing something different–a different dish to the table. Up to now it is very clear, we don’t have enough food at the table. We cannot hold warming to anything below 2.7°C and even then it’s only a 2/3rds chance without further admission.”

 

Now that the UK is in the lead as far as the richer countries is concerned, on the issue of climate change progress.  Their former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the perennial bad boy of British politics was boasting about the UK’s success and urging other countries to “grow up” as his has done. Imagine that Boris Johnson telling people to grow up.

 

As Hayhoe said some countries like the US and Canada too for that matter are still trying to hang on to the status quo so they can adapt our systems when we are “truly in a crisis.” As Hayhoe said, “ The ICCC said its Code Red.” Of course the planet is not a in crisis. The existing life on the planet is in an emergency. The planet will survive this crisis. Whether humans and other creatures on it survive as well is another question entirely. As Hayhoe said,

“It truly is about saving us and that’s why we need all hands on board. We need these promises to be fulfilled.”

 

The Financial Times said,

“Making progress on climate change without alienating citizens who are worried about their household budgets just got more difficult. For responsible leaders however, there is no alternative.”

 

Hayhoe acknowledged that politicians might be frightened away by the scale of the problem about reducing dependence on fossil fuels. She asked us to:

“Imagine if the oil crisis in the 70s had precipitated climate action on the scale that we see today. We would be living in a completely different world. I know that as humans we always want to go back to what we had before, but the planet that you and I were born on no longer exists. Instead, it is literally up to us. It is in our hands to build a better planet for all of us. And now it’s time as he (Boris Johnson) said to grow up and do it.”

 

If course we have to figure how we do it?  This requires massive change. And there are enormous forces of inertia trying to block the process from being fulfilled. Many organizations and powerful individuals are trying, with all the money at their disposal to stop the changes from happening. And they’re  succeeding. According to Hayhoe,

“Climate has become the most politicized issue in the United States ahead of money, religion, and politics.”

And that is remarkable for, as Hayhoe said,

“A thermometer is not liberal, or conservative, or Democrat or Republican, and a hurricane doesn’t knock on your door and ask you who you voted for in the last national election before it destroys your home.”

 

The polarization is helping to hold us back from climate action. We have to understand that we have to lose vastly outweighs anything else on this issue. As Hayhoe said,

“We have to realize that what we have in common and what we have at risk is far more than the political ideology that divides us.”

 

It is surprising but in the 1990s in the US both Democrats and Republicans agreed that climate change was a major threat. But that was before major oil companies started spending a lot of money on persuading people that it was not a threat and they should continue instead with business as usual. Hayhoe put it this way,

 

“Back in the early or even late 1990s you could ask a Democrat and a Republican about climate change and they would give you the same answer. So, what happened? It was deliberately politically polarized. By who? By those who have the most to lose by the world weaning itself off of fossil fuels.”

 

Hayhoe agrees with Naomi Orestes an historian of science at Harvard University. She said, the Merchants of Doubt spread doubt and it paid off. For decades that dark money has helped to persuade Americans, and others around the world, that climate change is not real, at least not yet.

 

What can we do about it? We all have to make personal choices and that is important. We can be the change we want. That is a powerful example to others. Yet, our biggest tool is actually our voices. We can speak up. There are people we can influence. We can advocate for change and that can make a difference.

 

We can call for action! That is what young people have been doing and it has made a difference. We can do that too. As well, as Hayhoe said,

 

“we can do that at every table we sit at. It might not be the public square. It might be where we work. It might be in the city or town where we live. It might the organization we are involved in. We have a voice and we have influence, each of us in our unique spheres and wherever we go we need to be connecting the dots between how climate change affects the things we already care about, as a place of work, or school or worship or town and what we as a group or organization can do to help contribute to the solution, because it’s not just about country. It’s about cities, states, provinces, towns, businesses, organizations, tribal nations, universities, churches. All of us have a role to play again in saving us.”

 

The worst thing we can do–absolutely the worst–is nothing. Nothing brings nothing. Nothing is bound to fail more clearly than nothing.