It’s Really Time to Panic — The Climate is Now Unfriendly
A very urgent plea for action: it’ll be too late soon
When it comes to talking about climate change, much of the conversation is about the future. We paint the climate crisis as a distant threat looming on the horizon that we can mitigate with proper climate action.
And as a result, many of the actions planned are goals set for the future.
The United Nations is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. EU proposes to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (a goal they admit they are likely to miss). The U.S. has set a target aiming at a 50–52% reduction in U.S. Greenhouse gas pollution from 2005 Levels by 2030. Meanwhile, China is aiming to have an emissions peak by 2030 (so that they can achieve neutrality by 2060).
While these are undoubtedly good goals to have, the issue is that these goals are targeting neutrality. Not net-negative.
That means that until 2050, we are expected to continue emitting more greenhouse gasses, contributing to even more climate change (and that is only the best-case scenario if everyone meets targets).
Combined with the fact that corporations are greenwashing consumption, it almost seems like everyone just wants to pat ourselves on our backs…
