Earth Day 2019 has passed with little more inconvenience, at least to the citizens of my area, than a few newspaper advertisements acknowledging the day or extolling the greenness of sponsoring oil companies . No doubt some schoolchildren were liberated from their classes long enough to plant a few flowers in front of their school, an event not considered newsworthy.
Have we become so complacent that, like the fabled frog sitting in a pot of heating water, we are sitting in our own, man-made cauldron of a steadily warming planet and increasing environmental derogation?
This Earth Day also marked the third anniversary of the the opening of the Paris Climate Agreement for signatures of the participating nations. One hundred, ninety-five nations have signed the Paris Agreement and 185 have since taken the final step of formal ratification. While it has always been recognized that the voluntarily pledged emission reductions are insufficient to meet the Agreement goal of holding global warming to less than 1.5oC many countries are failing to meet their pledges. Additionally, President Trump has declared that the United States will not participate in the Agreement and is officially withdrawing. This can hardly be an incentive for other countries.to additionally reduce their emissions.
In my opinion the major success of the Paris Agreement was that virtually all nations came together, agreed to cooperatively address a common problem, and actually produced an agreement that they all could sign. While the agreed upon actions were acknowledged as insufficient to meet their agreed upon goal, the Paris Agreement, per se, must be considered a major, historic, success. Regrettably we have since seen a rising political tide of nationalistic isolationism, exemplified by such actions as the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States and Brexit.
Denying science and building walls will not slow global warming. In real life frogs jump out of warming water, will we have enough common sense to do likewise?
