To teenagers about global warming, from a reader

Dear Folks at Education Revolution,

I continue to support AERO and am impressed with many of the things
the organization attempts to address. Lately however, I am becoming
more and more concerned about the awful state of the earth’s biosphere.
I am going to enclose a copy of a letter I sent to many of my
relatives about Global Warming recently. I will comment further at the
bottom of the page.

Dear Family,

“The sky is not actually falling”, said Chicken Little 2, “but it
is heating up tremendously.”

Probably all of you know me as someone whose concern for environmental
and social justice issues is greater than that of most folks. Having
watched very little TV and finding my information from alternative
sources for 3 decades has allowed me to learn things I would not have
learned if I had been plugged into mainstream media. As some of you
know, about a year and a half ago, I read Derrick Jensen’s book End
Game. It is way too long and needs editing, but overall, I think he
makes some strong points. I wish there was a Cliff’s Notes version of
the book because I think much of what Jensen describes is important to
face and talk about. In a nutshell using an “ism”, I could call him an
anti-civilizationist, but he and his ideas are more complex than that.

Recently, in the last six months, I started reading the blog and
website of Carloyn Baker, a counselor and history teacher at a
community college in New Mexico. She’s about late 50s or early 60s.
She seems to be friends with Jensen and many of the other folks who
think that the end of “modern” civilization is inevitable and coming
soon, and that it is probably the best option among limited, “between a
rock and a hard place” type choices. I tend to agree. The state of
our biosphere is in tremendous trouble, largely induced by people (or
corporations, they’re people too, aren’t they?) doing things to make a
buck or make a living.

A couple months ago, I came across a document published by Friends of
the Earth and written by the directors of a couple of leading
environmental organizations in Australia. It is called quite bluntly,
CLIMATE CODE RED. it is a 75 page document with another 15 pages of
accolades from leading environmental and political folks from around
the world, and another 15 pages of footnotes. The authors explain some
fairly technical climate science in understandable ways and quote many
of the world’s leading climate scientists extensively. As you can
imagine, they are saying that we are in VERY BIG TROUBLE if we allow
business as usual and politics as usual to guide the world’s response
to this monumental global emergency. Here are some words from the
Climate Code Red website at http://www.climatecodered.net/

Climate policy is characterized by the habituation of low
expectations and a culture of failure. There is an urgent need to
understand global warming and the tipping points for dangerous impacts
that we have already crossed as a sustainability emergency,
that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. We
are now in a race between climate tipping points and political tipping
points.

Since most of you are parents and care about young people, or are
fairly young yourself and likely to live far into this century, I think
we will especially relate to the comment of this person after she read
Climate Code Red:

Kirsten Kennedy
Kirsten Kennedy is a member of Pine Rivers Climate Action Network, a
mother, teacher and environmentalist.

When our children explain to their own children the history of the
early 21st century, will they tell a story of deterioration, despair,
and a planet out of control? Or a story of repair, renewal, and united
global endeavour? As we face the future of our planet and the survival
of our kind, we are at a critical junction in time. We have the
knowledge. We have the power. We have the resources. We just need the
motivation. “Climate Code Red” is a wake up call that we can’t ignore.
Here is the science that shows us that we can’t keep carrying on with
“business as usual”. Indeed, if we did just that, future generations
would never forgive us. This book should get your alarm bells ringing!
Turn off your big screen TV in your air-conditioned house and do
something that will make the world a better place. Now is the time. The
world is waiting for you.

As you can imagine, I’d like you to check out the website and read
some of the document. If the climate scientists whose work is sited in
the document are to be believed, time is of the essence and we have a
massive amount of work to do to change the way industries, utilities,
and governments operate, and regular people live their lives. I am
quite torn, because if I thought enough will and chutzpah could be
directed at the monumental climate change problems (and assorted other
environmental problems) immediately, and if I figured that we citizens
of the world could quickly end capitalism and put it on the compost
pile, and come up with a benign, participatory, democratic economic
system (or more likely a variety of different interesting economic
systems), extremely fast, then I would think it urgent to do all I can
to influence people to get involved in this huge issue. As it is, I
don’t believe there is enough interest in the topic of environmental
destruction in general or global warming specifically. Folks in the
modern societies and in the not so modern societies, seem to think they
have plenty to do just to cope with the myriad tasks of daily living.

So I am not optimistic about there being a groundswell of interest in
doing whatever it takes to cool down our planet to a safe temperature.
In fact, I doubt if this email will get even 1/3 of all of you reading
it to even go the the website and read a few pages of the document. I
try to consider myself a pragmatist.

However, the issues are not going to go away. If we don’t address
them head on today, they will still be with us three or four years
from now and the situation will be significantly more dire. Unless the
economy collapses in the next three or four years (and I certainly
think it may), and civilization as we have known it is just history,
then I think the global warming issue will be literally screaming at us
by then. I’d say there are excellent odds that most species,
including humans, will have become toast on a parched planet by the end
of this century. A very grim thought to be sure, but a real
possibility, and from what I read, maybe a probability if we don’t
change course drastically and immediately.

If you do decide to read some or all of the document, or even if you
decide not to do so, I welcome your thoughts.

As always, I send you firm wishes in an increasingly wobbly world.

Love,

Sandy

So it’s me again writing to Ed Rev. The point of writing is to get
your input about reaching young people, especially teenagers. Any
teenager (and especially ones who tend to understand and value science)
who reads Climate Code Red will almost certainly be quite alarmed. The
planet has a high probability of becoming unlivable in the next 60
years, before a teenager would reach the age of 80. The picture
painted by the document is so vivid and scary, even though its authors
seem to try to not be too vivid or scary.
A teenager who reads the document is likely to talk about it with her
/ his friends and family, and do so in quite passionate and serious
ways. After all, it is the young people who will inherit the mess we
adults have made (and are continuing to make) of the biosphere. Most
kids who read the document are likely to get others to read it. Some
may just get tremendously depressed and some may commit suicide. The
document is that powerful. But if 20% of the high school age kids in
this country were to read Climate Code Red, they would undoubtedly find
it incredibly alarming and want to take action. How can an adult,
whether it is a parent, school board member, mayor, corporate exec, or
senator not listen to a group of informed, concerned, and outraged
teenagers who are trying to make the case for treating Climate Code Red
as the major emergency of their lifetime? A million teenagers who have
read the document could become a serious force for changing our society
in smarter directions quickly. And they would undoubtedly interact
with their peers around the world.

Although there are lots and lots of other serious social justice
issues and environmental issues as we approach not just Peak OIl, but
what Richard Heinberg calls Peak Everything, I think the Global Warming
issue is the grandmommy of them all. If we don’t cool the planet QUITE
soon, I think humans and just about all the other species are doomed.
So what are your thoughts? Have you read any or all of Climate Code
Red? As folks who interact with young people and their parents and try
to create societal changes that are more fair and humane for kids, do
you think this topic is worth promoting?

I’d appreciate your feedback. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Sandy Turner
Redwood Valley CA