The Penny has Dropped – It just hasn’t hit the ground yet
You drop a penny.
I ask a simple question: “When does it hit the ground?”
The simple answer is: “The short time after you drop it.”
The more complicated, correct answer is: “When it left your hand.”
Understanding this 2nd answer can help us understand how the actions we have done in the past have made certain futures inevitable. Is this a depressing thought? Not for me. It just means I have removed my rose coloured glasses by realizing that the wisdom from the Books of Psalms is absolutely true:
As you reap, so shall you sow.
The logic goes like this. When you made the choice to drop the penny you knew it would hit the ground. As a matter of fact, you dropped the penny for the express purpose of it hitting the ground. Thus, in the world of thought, choosing to drop the penny means the penny will hit the ground. Now I will use a biological metaphor. The thought is like your DNA – it is a potential reality. However, a thought, like DNA, needs the epigenetic switch to go on for the information in the DNA to be actualized. In the case of dropping our penny this means you act and your fingers actually drop the penny. Once you have done that, unless you have some way to deflect the penny away from its flight path, the penny will, and thus has, hit the ground.
Got it?
Now there is a way out. I mentioned above that there is the possibility, however remote, of deflecting the penny. What we have been doing, since the Keeling curve made it clear that we are committing suicide, is to try to deflect the penny – the penny, of course, being GHG emissions and destruction of habitats causing the 6th mass extinction. We have tried valiantly. However, the data, especially how that it is clear that we are not even really trying to attain your Paris Accord agreement targets, is clear – the penny was dropped, the penny will hit the ground. Our feeble attempts to deflect the penny have failed. Now is the time to prepare for the inevitable – for the day the penny hits the ground – the day climate change makes our current way of living untenable. The day we must change, or die.
This is not negative information. It is valuable information that allows you to now prepare for that day. Winter is coming – so chop some firewood to keep warm! As I learned in Boy Scouts, life is all about being prepared.
Not convinced? I wouldn’t be either. You and I both need evidence to confirm that this theory is true. Well here is some indirect evidence. Below is the subtitle to a recent article I read:
We can’t stop our planets next mass extinction event. Not only is Earth in the middle of its next mass extinction event, but it may be [is] too late to undo the harm inflicted by people.
The researchers are using my metaphor of the penny dropping to make the case that we have set in motion a series of events that make extinction of many species now inevitable. Whatever we do now, short of the suicide of the human race, makes this sad event a sure thing. For me their logic applies equally to the climate change issue. The industrial revolution reliance upon fossil fuels to power our machines and industries was the penny that was dropped. Our attempts to deflect are our attempts to use more renewable energy and are failing. Like the 6th mass extinction disaster is now inevitable. The only question is: how bad will it get? Will 50% or 60% or 70% of species go extinct? Will the temperature rise be 2 degrees? 4 degrees? 6 degrees?
Here is the latest evidence to confirm what I am saying – the latest news on global emissions:
Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels and cement have rebounded by 4.9% this year, new estimates suggest, following a Covid-related dip of 5.4% in 2020.
Not only that, China is now building more coal fired generating capacity than that of all of North America. India is not far behind. Guess what that means. https://e360.yale.edu/features/despite-pledges-to-cut-emissions-china-goes-on-a-coal-spree
A total of 247 gigawatts of coal power is now in planning or development, nearly six times Germany’s entire coal-fired capacity. China has also proposed additional new coal plants that, if built, would generate 73.5 gigawatts of power, more than five times the 13.9 gigawatts proposed in the rest of the world combined.
The penny has dropped. Our efforts to reduce the disaster are failing. But do we stop trying? NO! That’s the thing about all life, including we humans – we do not give up! We want to live! So, in spite of or perhaps because of my above arguments I will make the case that our response is keep on trying. Never give up. Vote for leaders that will actually lead. Life your life to reduce your emissions to a minimum. Work with your family, friends, neighbours and organizations to spread the word that our current path is doomed, but that we can, if we so choose, reduce, but not stop, the damage. Be realistic, but be hopeful.
Yes, the penny has dropped.
Yes, the penny will, and has, hit the ground.
So, like a good Boy/Girl Scout, Be Prepared for when it hits the ground.
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