A Major Climate Action Concert planned

Lauantai 29.6.2019 klo 14.02 - Mikko Nikinmaa

The leaders of the scientists warning group are in the process of getting together a major event next summer. It should get worldwide attention. The prospectus of the planned event is below.

Live Aid II – SOS Save the World
Dr. William J. Ripple, Director, Alliance of World Scientists and Dr. Alison Green, Director, Scientists Warning UK
The 1985 ‘Live Aid’ concert was a watershed moment for humanity, showing how an event could successfully channel compassion and raise money. Minds, hearts, bodies and souls united to try to avert a humanitarian crisis. Today, we face a planetary crisis that is the defining issue of our times, yet awareness is not growing nearly fast enough. ‘Live Aid II’ responds to this urgent need.
Climate breakdown is happening much faster than many expected. It is more severe than scientists anticipated and is threatening natural ecosystems and even the fate of humanity. Sir David Attenborough has said, “The future of all life on this planet depends on our willingness to take action now.” We need to raise awareness of this climate crisis immediately if we are to stand a chance of halting untold human misery.
Live Aid II will be either a summer outdoor concert or a series of back-to-back concerts around the world and will be offered during the summer of 2020 on the 35th anniversary of the 1985 Live Aid concert. Sponsors and promoters will decide on the location and number of venues. Performers will be asked to donate their time. In addition to tens of thousands of attendees, hundreds of millions of people will be able to participate online and on television.
The main objective of Live Aid II is to raise awareness and educate about climate breakdown and the ecological crisis, and how we can respond. Every person attending or watching will have their worldview changed. Performances will start with a dispatches video, documenting climate breakdown in action around the globe. Performers may share their feelings about the existential crisis we face and make calls on how we need “all hands on deck”. We plan to build inter-generational awareness and connections, such that the voices of the young are empowered to use their perspectives as levers for change. Those with power, money, status and privilege then need to accept some responsibility and use their own levers to commit to advocating for transformative change. This event transcends the various activist movements, and Live Aid II will not be affiliated with any one movement in particular.
We will include teach-outs and drop-in eco-anxiety sessions, so people can learn about the climate and ecological crises and receive support for anxiety. We will run sessions where people can learn how to construct a simple solar charger to power their mobile phones. We will use satellite imagery to illustrate the scale and rate of deforestation, for example, and use this information to seek pledges to fund reforestation. We will encourage people to download apps that measure and help reduce their carbon footprint, and we will run some online experiments that show how much energy can be saved by simple measures, such as switching off lights and reducing speed. The venue will provide catering outlets where people can sample and learn to cook plant-based foods rather than meat because collectively what we eat has a huge effect on the climate and environment.
During some of the musical breaks, famous actors, artists and musicians, well-known scientists, spiritual leaders and striking students will make calls for unified action along selected themes. The voices of the children will be a focus. The School Climate Strike actions and the student’s voices (Greta Thunberg) are the ones that will endure and resonate. A major event involving many famous musicians, a few big-name actors & scientists, and some student activists would be inspiring and affirming. The event will foster international cooperation to fight the climate crisis. Brian May of Queen is supporting the idea of Live Aid II https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/07/us/live-aid-for-climate-change-trnd/index.html

Growth Economy - Enemy of Habitable Earth

Keskiviikko 22.5.2019 klo 20.29 - Mikko Nikinmaa

Throughout the world politics is centered around maximal economic growth. When the economic growth of a nation is smaller than the average, the politicians and the media are depressed and almost think that the end of the world has come. However, that is not the cause of the end of the world, but growth itself is.

Analogy to maximizing economic growth is a car with no visibility - one does not know what happens if you increase the speed. The earth is the car with no visibility. In the case of driving a car, with decreasing visibility, you decrease the speed to enable you to respond to any problem. You certainly would not increase speed, but that is what is done with economic growth. One does not know what happens to the Earth, but growth must be speeded up. The concepts of growth economy were formulated when the human population was one fifth of what it is now and there seemed to be unlimited space and resources.

This is not the case any more. The human population is so large that it inevitable leads to the use of land, energy and resources in such a way that the future use is affected. As two negaive results of this we have climate change and biodiversity loss. Despite the clear negative effects of growth, both population and economic growth are the primary goals of politics. It seems almost impossible for politicians and other decision makers to realize that they are behind all the problems that the right-wing populists are utilizing. If the resources and space were unlimited, there would be no refugees, no climate change etc. So continuing with the concept of growth is plain silly.

The growth has been possible by taking a loan from nature, i.e. a loan from future generations. This is not sustainable. So the concept of natural capital must be introduced into main focus of political and economic thinking. The outset of any political and economic decision should be that anything done is neutral to the environment (if a decision causes a deterioration of one aspect in environment steps should be made to compensate for it in other environmental features).

If we decide to accept that growth is changed to zero effect on environment, the problem is that many negative effects of growth will continue for a long period of time. If, for example, we are able to decrease the number of children to a level that in the long run will stop population growth, the population increase will continue for the period of time that the present children grow up to fertile age. Similar examples can be found in virtually all aspects of life. However, we must not resort to thinking that the lack of effects in the short term shows that the measure is not effective. What we need to do is putting all our efforts to change from growth economy to sustainable solutions.