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About Us – How This Site Can Work For You
About Think Global Green In December 2008, ThinkGlobalGreen was launched with a view to covering aspects of climate change from an informational-educational perspective as the subject was receiving little attention although science had clearly identified the dangers of inaction in halting greenhouse gas emissions. Through the annual UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) talks at COP gatherings, especially the Copenhagen (2009) and Paris (2105) COPs, evidence built that despite investments in renewable energies – chiefly solar and wind power – warnings of increasing temperatures beyond the 2C range, considered to be the maximum we could permit without serious harm to the planet, had not been sufficiently heeded as nations continued growth policies which exacerbated emissions. So, with the May 2018 re-launch of the site, the major focus will be on actions. Information and debate alone are no longer adequate when under the Paris Agreement, pledges, if kept, would see an almost 4C rise by 2100. What happens in the following century, generally disregarded, should cause alarm at every level because those emissions from CO2, the prime culprit, will persist for hundreds of years. They don’t simply disappear when we end emissions and life goes back to normal. Action. As leaders have failed, ordinary people now must take up the challenge. Global warming is not something to believe or not – it is real and happening now. In the 12 months leading to the re-launch, there are signs that emerging coalitions are awakening to the crisis. Young people, so-called millennials, comprise 25% of the population in the USA and exceed 50% in many developing nations that bear the crux of global warming. (Note – global warming has caused the climate to change, and climate disruption is a more accurate term.) Also the role being played by women especially suggests that hope can once again be envisioned that we can avert the worst climate catastrophes. (Not that we aren’t experiencing catastrophes in the present decade – the damage is already taking place.) To my mind men in general, have proven ill-equipped to take on the hard decisions needed to return to a sustainable growth pattern for life on this planet. Since COP-1 in Berlin in 1995, failure has been the result at every turn. Women are more able to concern themselves with future generations, and here indigenous peoples around the world are perhaps the ones we ought to both respect and take heed of. The role of ThinkGlobalGreen, then, will be to focus on actions through the months leading up to the next decade, which I believe will present the world leaders, corporations and individuals with a choice. We can continue as normal with lifestyles based on consumption, or turn around and make the necessary sacrifices that will leave a planet for our children, grandchildren and future generations that is not polluted and provides a healthy existence. This is why I come back to the quote from Helen Caldicott which I requested when creating the website ten years ago. “You’re going to have to change the priorities of your life if you love this planet.” Helen Caldicott (Australian physician, author and anti-nuclear advocate) – used with permission for www.thinkglobalgreen.org “The climate battle will not be won or lost at the international level: it will be won or lost at the grassroots level.” Yeb Saño
Editorials on a range of issues will be regular features on thinkglobalgreen.org Contact Alan with comments and concerns when you have them. Responses guaranteed. Note: All articles from overseas sources will retain spelling as published. |
Alan graduated from Lancaster University (England) in 1979 majoring in social studies and international relations. He has been a long-time peace and environmental activist and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with wife Liz and has three children aged between 25 and 33. His concern for climate change and the future prospects for the planet led him to develop this web site. Alan moved to the USA in 1984 after living in Scotland, France and Israel. In 2015 Alan authored the book 