“Climate change is the real danger for the world”
Thu, 26 Nov 2015 13:08:00 GMT
Lecturer challenges politicians and business leaders as figures show that temperatures are rising
THE dangers posed by climate change make the struggle with ISIS look like “a local skirmish”, according to a university lecturer with expertise in sustainability.
Dr Julia Meaton’s outburst comes as world leaders prepare to meet in Paris for the latest UN Climate Change Conference and new figures show that temperatures are fast approaching levels that could mean catastrophe for the planet.
Dr Meaton (pictured) – who has worked on projects in countries that include Ethiopia, Zambia and Jordan – is Senior Lecturer in Sustainability at the University of Huddersfield and a member of its Centre for Sustainable and Resilient Communities.
In a hard-hitting blog that warns of the dangers of complacency in the face of climate change, she points to research by the Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia that indicates global temperatures are 1.02C above the average.
“This research suggests that we are halfway towards the 2C rise that is widely accepted as the maximum increase that the planet can tolerate without catastrophic implications for humankind,” writes Dr Meaton.
“The implications and the challenges that this represents are of global importance, that should make the current refugee crisis, ISIS terrorism, and the Russian doping scandal look like local skirmishes – but where is the response, where are the headlines, where are the serious-faced politicians reassuring us that they are making every effort to address the problem?
“We have wasted over 25 years arguing over causes and impacts – we no longer have the luxury of time,” states Dr Meaton, who claims that the public vainly “cling to the hope that the climate sceptics are right and that the problem will go away, or that a technological miracle will save us.”
Meanwhile, large companies have clouded the evidence and politicians have sought to pacify their key funders, “using uncertainty and the need for proof as a means of delaying hard-hitting, potentially planet saving legislation.”
“All of us need to wake up and wise up to what is happening,” concludes Dr Meaton.
“We shall see how governments respond in Paris next week, but we can’t wait for politicians to act. Businesses need to understand that they can no longer ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ and that wholesale changes to their business plans need to be made – quickly.”
- The Centre for Sustainable Communities is writing Twelve Days to Christmas, which is 12 individual blogs in the run up to the national holiday on all things environmental, sustainable and climatic. You can read it here.
