This decade brings THE fork in the road
2020 Is Our Last, Best Chance to Save the Planet says Justin Worland in this powerful piece on Time.com – from July 2020 yet very relevant today. In a very much related TIME feature from April this year, Chris Hughes states, and asks “The Free Market is Dead: What Will Replace It?” Here are some best-of snippets from both pieces – great food for thought!
Read more about ‘Free Market’ Futures via GerdFeed
Off the climate cliff or take the last exit?
“In the future, we may look back at 2020 as the year we decided to keep driving off the climate cliff–or to take the last exit. Taking the threat seriously would mean using the opportunity presented by this crisis to spend on solar panels and wind farms, push companies being bailed out to cut emissions and foster greener forms of transport in cities. If we instead choose to fund new coal-fired power plants and oil wells and thoughtlessly fire up factories to urge growth, we will lock in a pathway toward climate catastrophe. There’s a divide about which way to go” More via Time.com
“We’re standing at a climate crossroads: the world has already warmed 1.1°C since the Industrial Revolution. If we pass 2°C, we risk hitting one or more major tipping points, where the effects of climate change go from advancing gradually to changing dramatically overnight, reshaping the planet. To ensure that we don’t pass that threshold, we need to cut emissions in half by 2030… To achieve the 1.5°C goal without creating mass disruption has always meant thoughtfully restructuring the global economy, moving it away from fossil-fuel extraction slowly but surely. Scientists and economists agree this is the last opportunity we have to do so. “If we delay further than 2020,” says Rockstrom, “there’s absolutely no empirical evidence that it can be done in an orderly way.” More via Time.com