What Do We Do?

What have my attempts to obtain a deeper understanding of our ocean and climate systems led me to believe? After a term of trying to tackle and discuss a range of environmental issues and concerns, I am still stumped. There is an array of issues that I am most definitely oblivious to, let alone been able to write about.

As I have implied in previous blog posts, this sudden exposure to the realities of climate change have transmitted various warning signals into my head which got me questioning the status quo of our society. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never had so much conflict in my mind about the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of the world we live in. It is driving me crazy that there are multiple grey areas when it comes to things like sustainable development and efforts to ‘save the planet’.

I remember rushing home after our COP21 simulation session to text my mother and tell her that we needed to do everything in our power to reduce CO₂ emissions. Over the Christmas holidays, I recall getting into a tiff with my older brother who was simply expressing his desire to own a sports car (he is a car enthusiast). I told him he should only own one and I even jokingly threatened to never speak to him if he ever broke that ultimatum. I later realised how extremist I made myself sound on my part and I felt bad. However, I have since been continuously thinking about the possibility of our capitalist system being a hindrance to achieving certain environmental targets. Idealistic, I know, but I cannot help it sometimes.

The truth is, I keep going back and forth in terms of whether reaching these different goals and aspirations for the preservation of our Earth for the future generation is plausible. I do not know what to say to people when they ask me if the Earth is beyond repair. After deciding on this blog topic after the first lecture of the module, I went into this believing that oceans and climate systems are in fact serious business, now more so than ever. My opinion has not altered.

My mother sent me a video regarding our planet and how it is changing and there was a line in that video that hit a raw nerve – ‘nature does not need us, but we need nature’. The Earth will keep on evolving, but can we keep up? While we may be able to entertain the thought of a possible mass extinction (based on track record), it is only instinctual to want to be capable of guaranteeing a future for our successors. Ignorance, in my opinion, is a disservice to these successors.