We’re literally driving ourselves to destruction: irresponsibility, stupidity, or both?
The planet is in the midst of the hottest summer ever recorded; with every likelihood that within a decade, we’ll remember it bitterly as one of the more bearable. Extreme weather events such as forest fires, heat waves, flash flooding, and hurricanes are increasing, threatening more and more people, and not just in the developing world.
The evidence of the climate emergency is all around us: the global scientific community is in total agreement that more than a century of industrialization based on the abuse of fossil fuels has released colossal amounts of gases that have warmed the planet, as well as fouling the air we breathe with toxins that damage our lungs and other organs. Scientists estimate that air pollution from fossil fuels kills between one and ten million people each year.
And yet, our governments continue to subsidize the fossil fuel industry at record levels, according to a report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD): $1.4 trillion by 2022, despite the good…
