Ditch the Hopium: Instead, Struggle to Save Humanity

In the wake of the historic Paris Agreement signed last Saturday, Bill McKibben of 350.org urged us to hold global leaders accountable to the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit they set last week at the latest United Nations Climate Change Conference, the COP21.

McKibben makes a solid point: although world leaders have pledged to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, their actual plans commit the world to a 3.5 degree increase. This would very likely derail civilization, destabilize the biosphere and cause mass human and non-human die-offs. McKibben dubs that dissonance the difference between “hope and action.”

We can no longer afford to hope. So-called #ClimateHope has not brought us closer to justice for our species but rather closer to calamity. Furthermore, hope the emotion depends on fear, and we cannot afford to fear anymore than necessary in these trying times.

It's not about the environment anymore; the very survival of humanity is at stake. Indeed, as Mary Robinson of Ireland has said, climate change is the greatest human rights issue in the world today.

So what of survival? Survival depends on us doing the following. Firstly, we must ”keep it in the ground: Force the fossil fuel industry to power down by any means necessary, leaving untapped at least 80% of the world's remaining fossil fuels. Equally important is to recarbonize the soil: immediately transition agriculture from degenerative industrial modes to regenerative, agroecological systems. This could reverse global warming, according to one OSU scientist. At the same time, we've got to uproot the toxic system of capitalism — which got us into this quandary in the first place. Instead of capitalism, we need to create localized, living, regenerative economies that are mostly self-sufficient. Fourth on the list: immediate, sustained climate reparations to the tune of trillions of dollars from Europe and North America, whose countries' consumption caused the climate crisis, to the poorer Global Southern countries that need the money to adapt to climate chaos. Moreover, the Global Southern countries are being hit hardest by climatic changes, and are least responsible for the problem. Indigenous peoples especially must be centered in this process. Lastly, we must reforest land and revitalize ecosystems, putting even more carbon into the soil where it belongs.

Some suggest that keeping fossil fuels in the ground is enough, but it isn't. Only by uprooting capitalism, ensuring equitable monetary reparations to developing countries for climate injustice, and recarbonizing the soil through regenerative agriculture do we have a chance at making it this century.