The movie Home by Yann Artus Betrand (2009) reawakened a memory of hitchhiking through Algonquin Park in 1994 and being picked up by Professor Guy McPherson and a collection of other climate scientists on their way to a conference. His thesis is largely that Nature Bats Last and that humanity is largely doomed to near-term extinction. His opinions on the topic haven't changed much for a quarter century in the intervening decades. However he seems more at peace with it and does have much more data to support his ideas. This led me to revisit the opinions of writers such as Gwynne Dyer upon investigating food security issues in Korea and prereading for an ASEAN research project that never took place. His books and continuing articles on climate change such as Climate Wars (2009) coincide with McPherson's data gathering and reports all from peer reviewed journal articles and interviews with experts who support the 97% consensus among climate scientists that climate change is certainly taking place. Through ongoing climate change denial, the societies most capable of making a transition to a post carbon energy world have refused to do so for decades. This may ensure a mass extinction level event in far too near-term future.
People without my global exposure to travel, education and reading appear to think I am spreading gloom and doom? Or that I should be resented for knowing what I know? Marg Atwood has it right when she describes Canadian culture as a place where you're not supposed to look like you're smarter than anybody else. We're discouraged by a status quo that appears to reward and encourage mediocrity rather than those who strive to improvement especially in education. Even others who may have much more of it such as Exxon executives have refused to say little about what they have known for decades. Well, I don't agree and am tired of people with fewer qualifications or travel experiences harshly criticizing me for what science and its evidence are indicating are correct. I know that most people in my closest circles are not reading articles from this sphere of near-term climate impacts. Their advice or opinions on the topic are usually coming from a media skewed conservative ideological mindset (what other mainstream is there in a natural resource economy like Canada really). That advice is to find another topic to focus on and that this knowledge impacts upon me negatively and that my happiness is more important. This sounds fairly hedonistic to me. I enjoy teaching the topics of international trade and I am good at it. However much additional education taken on to support alternative research commercialization to address climate change impacts goes underutilized.
Well, none of these people are building habitats for wild animals to ensure some survive increasingly harsh winters and seem unaware of anything beyond climate change denial. My engagement with nature gives me the most satisfaction in what I realize is a great dying in the air, water, land and seas. Increasingly, I feel isolated due to my awareness. Most recently I have begun following the post carbon institute, climate reality, The Naked Scientists, Climatetruth.org, Climate Change Guide, Union of Concerned Scientists and Skeptical Science among others as well as denial101x. I don't think Canada is a healthy place to disagree with this fossil fuel financed status quo. This is a country that is burning fossils like its 1955. The cognitive dissonance and information bias in Canada not only undermines scientific consensus but discounts the quality of education found in countries like Australia or the academic work experiences found in regions such as Asia or the Middle East. As potential employers in Canada continue to reject my job applications their message is that my reasoning is faulty and my respect for academic freedom is too ang mo? Canada seems to have become a diversity that seeks to exclude logic and reason in my absence from this job market. Its fossil fuel resource sphere of influence is a magnified minority and may be all that defines the sociopolitical culture of Canada at the present time. This hasnt stopped me from reaching out to people and organizations who share my views. I wish there were more in Canada.
What have I been reading lately? Insideclimatenews.org has a multi-part series on what Exxon knew about climate change since the 1970s. This is a Pulitzer Prize winning group of climate science reporters so I think their accuracy is investigative and thorough. Exxon: The Road Not Taken that's what I've been reading lately. I wish I could be more positive and happier in the prospects of what the near-term future holds for the earth due to companies like this. I wish the impacts of what their industry has wrought would be decades and generations away from harming me and the people who claim to love me. The science is clear on so many choke-points in food, water and energy that 2025-2030 isn't far enough into the future for me to feel good about it. The question, "So what?" is insufficient and lacks understanding and I hear it too frequently from so called educated people who claim to love me. That is the ultimate dissonance. People who are uncomfortable with the implications of climate change cannot absorb this data or accept the scientific concensus. There's a mental block to it and most of the media largely perpetuates that. Its all marketing and the selling of optimistic lies. McPherson calls it hopium. http://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken
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