Today!

So, today is Blog Action Day on Climate Change. Bloggers are asked to reference climate change in whatever way it relates to their usual topic. As this blog is largely on, well, the environment, it's hard to know what to write...

I guess the most basic fact that needs to be conveyed to people who don't usually take an interest in this topic is that Climate Change is a reality. It is a certainty, not a possibility. It is not a problem we may face in the future, but one which is effecting irreparable damage on our planet right now, which is endangering and making extinct many species of both flora and fauna as we wait and, perhaps most strikingly, causing homelessness, the spread of disease, poverty and death to many people. It might be an inconvenience to accept this and to acknowledge that we must make changes which are sometimes simple, but other times demand commitment, compromise, renunciation or investment. We might feel that we cannot afford to give the time or money that would make the difference. But the question is really if we can afford not to. And if we can live with ourselves when we don't.

At the moment, the injustice of climate change is that the largest responsibility lies at the feet of we long-term industrialised nations. Though we may hold emerging economies responsible for their rapid and energy inefficient development, the fact is that we are accountable. We have not only already experienced the changes that these countries are now undergoing, but we have failed to develop a model for ourselves that promotes sustainability. This gives us little right in offering advice to other continents and none in criticising their activity. Had we placed protection of the planet's climate higher on the prioritiy list, we would already have found many of the solutions we now seek and would have been in a position to offer them to our international counterparts.

At the moment, those who are paying the price for our shortsighted greed are precisely those who have been marginalised by it. Those who have driven economic development at the cost of all else have exploited the very people who are now suffering the effects of the environmental damange that it has brought about. We have to come to terms with this shameful past and to fight to change it, just as we had to accept the injustice of and overthrow the slave trade two centuries ago.

If our planet and humankind is to stand any chance in the fight against climate change, we need to work together. We need all people possible to come together: there is no option for those who are relatively unaffected to continue thus, ignoring the plight of others. Even in the short term, we will all soon start to pay the price for our blinkered vision and refusal to change. Those in Europe and the US are not going to be immune to the damage that climate chaos will deliver, it knows no boundaries - we already see increased flooding, unsteadied weather systems, more hurricanes... How much more will it take for us to accept that it is imperative that we act immediately? Are we really willing to let people in the so-called 'Southern countries' face drought, flooding, and climate chaos and associated problems until we get to an unliveable situation in the West to act?

Future generations are going to demand answers of us. How did we let this happen? Let's not quibble about how serious the problem might or might not be. Let's accept it's serious enough to demand all our attention and focus our energy on tackling it rather than talking about whether we need to act yet.

Let's fight for our future and our children's and let's put ourselves in a position to answer their future questions.