Some thoughts about climate change

The Dalái Lama, the exiled religious leader of  Tibet once claimed that

-the true threats to the future earth were greed, selfishness, and ignorance.

And from a slightly more humble personality, but a very close friend of mine, working successfully en organization development once used a metaphor of fighting bad habits: “If your lawn is full of weed (=bad habits), using a lawnmower is not enough to get rid of it. The lawn looks nice a few days after it has been cut but soon the weed will be all over again”.

-you have to take the weed away with its roots.”

Having these two statements in mind – just as a random choice among many, and accepting both as “clever talk” and at the same time valuing the present overheated discussion about climate change, I would inevitably drag some non-typical conclusions.

I believe that the main issue is not to reduce the CO2 emissions, but perhaps to get rid of the excess CO2 converting it to oxygen. CO2 is not a bad thing, it is vital for the function and balance in nature. Without it, we wouldn´t have any green plants or any life. We just need to balance the CO2 and oxygen. Green plants and trees will do that job and we could use a lot more wood in all kinds of construction and production than we do nowadays. So now you can just lean back for a moment and think about, how this can be done. I don’t have to explain to you that.

Next, I think that the most important and urgent problem for the planet not necessarily is the climate change. Plastic is perhaps the most dangerous threat to our planet at the moment. Half of the planet is covered by the oceans, and plastic pollution is changing the nature of life in this half planet drastically.  Recycling, proposed by nearly everybody is complicated and very expensive. Worse: The collection and recycling process produces, inevitably a lot of CO2 pollution.

Only 1 Km outside Copenhagen City, in “Amager Forbrændingen” they burn 75% of all waste collected, including plastic. The only thing coming out of the 30m high chimneys is water damp – yes, and CO2. Nevertheless, a project about separating and storing the CO2 has seen the daylight. It is easy to do. The most difficult issue is to figure out, what the CO2 can be used for, but solutions are on the way from The East. The existing system on Amager Forbrændingen separates the ashes and the slag and both are used in concrete and asphalt mix as filler. Finally but very important, the heat from the combustion is used to produce electricity and warm water for domestic heating. It is not a brilliant business but albeit it makes a profit.

In both these examples, greed and selfishness are obstacles to a successful implementation. There is a lot more of succulent business to do in the reduction of the emissions than in the conversion of the CO2. (El-Cars, alternative energy, paper-based plastic-like products, etc.) Scientists are financed, directly or indirectly by big capital powers, nobody else can nor want to, and they focus on the main interest of their benefactors, and they are by nature greedy. None of them are interested in neither planting trees nor burning waste. There is not enough money in it.

Though, the worst factor in the future handling of the health of the Earth, unfortunately, is the politicians, a caste that suffers significantly from selfishness and to some extent from dependence on capital powers and ignorance as well. It’s not a big exaggeration to say, that the loyalty of all politicians is placed in their political party only - not in their constituents. Concerning the latter, they only want more voters to their benefit or the benefit of their party, at all costs. Lies, corruption, slander, and gross manipulation are part of the non-noble execution of their political mandate to reach these goals.

This uncomfortable fact represents the roots of the bad, not the root of the pollution but the root of the wrongful activeness and the missing determination.

Let the coming decade, because much more time we don't have, be the one where these uncomfortable facts will be understood by all of us, and all the empty talk about CO2 emissions and recycling results will be replaced by some intelligent and fast, much needed and sustainable solutions - designed and mastered by engineers.

But to do so, we´ll need political and social leaders of great intellectual, political and uncorrupt human stature, who believe in substantial changes, even if these will not bear fruit before they perhaps are no longer here. If we achieve this, we will have pulled out the biggest evil on earth with its roots.