Climate change sidelined, catastrophe looms ever closer

As the Washington Post reports today, just a few years ago, climate change was everywhere. Democrats, buoyed by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, talked constantly about the transition to clean energy and the threat of rising extreme weather events. In 2022, over 1,000 companies across the globe reported science-based climate targets — more than in the previous seven years combined. The world was still heady with energy from the landmark Paris agreement; countries were passing hundreds of climate laws every year amid a wave of climate marches and activism.

All that's changed now, and not just in the US, but other advanced nations like the UK and France, both of which have trimmed back their renewables pledges. And let's not forget China and India, two of the world's worst polluters. China didn't even send an envoy to the recent COP 30 Conference in Rio, and India just had its Brazilian ambassador to represent it.

Sadly, people are again turning to their short-term interests, like cost of living increases, while sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to longer-term consequences. While those consequences may not touch them, their children will pay the price, maybe with their lives!

In the same way that we have to maintain our constructional infrastructure, we need to look after the natural infrastructure, including our all-important, life-supporting climate.

Put simply, bad infrastructure means things like bridges, roads and ports falling apart, and lack of attention to climate change change through greenhouse gas emissions, means catastrophic flooding, devastating hurricanes, food starvation in advanced nations (just look at Africa to understand famines), and so on.

So, we have been warned, and it's up to the younger generations to fight hard to persuade their parents to vote for their long-term future, even if the price is increases in short-term energy bills.