Summary of conclusions and proposals of Humane Civilization Worldwide: humanecivilization.org (hae.hcw@gmail.com)
A basic insight:
In an extreme emergency, we must first think of the solution, then on how to reach it.
Global warming is arguably the worst crisis in human history.
Science journalists and scientists are describing causes of global warming and horrific details of its consequences, but little on how to reverse it.
Wind power, solar collectors, batteries, and many other resources that industries need have become much cheaper. However, the climate is deteriorating more rapidly than has been projected – weather catastrophes become much more deadly and unpredictable. Even if reaching the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement and virtually all industries have reached ‘carbon neutrality,’ permafrost and glaciers will keep melting, forests and ecosystems of the oceans will keep dying, large densely populated areas will become uninhabitable. Global warming is driven by feedback loops, vicious cycles, not the greenhouse gases that are released today. The world must dramatically lower atmospheric greenhouse gases in order to start reversing global warming.
Many excellent approaches to mitigate global warming have been described: Peter Fiekowsy (Climate Restoration – The only Future That Will Sustain the Human Race). Paul Hawken (Drawdown and Regeneration) and others, 350.org, climaterealityproject.org, etc.
However, there is hardly progress. Reasons include:
Activists and scientists appear to assume that our corporations should change, disregard profits and work to save our world – they will not. Investors want highest profits, not what is good for our planet.
Activists, scientists, and writers appear too specialized in their own specific fields of work. They do not find time to learn from non-professionals’ input. They do not work on a comprehensive plan to greatly reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas levels.
What everybody can and should do:
People should seek the best available information and pass it on to others: people must learn about the severity of the climate crisis and the outline of an effective, feasible response to it We, particularly young and retired people, must support a broad, education campaign. We then must work towards a nationwide movement that demands comprehensive, effective government action.
● We absolutely need a government response, as radical and comprehensive as that after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941: the government directed industries to develop and build what the military needed (example: the jeep); people accepted that most civilian industries halted their production and, for years, fulfilled government contracts.
● A major education campaign must explain:
– basic ethical principles: focus on giving, forgiving, cooperating, being compassionate, and considering beings that are different, distant, and that will live in the future.
– The world must save energy and resources in every way possible, avoid products and production processes that release much greenhouse gases, and sequester enormous amounts of carbon.
● Government-guided and funded public-private partnership nonprofit enterprises must thoroughly reform industries, land management, and transportation systems.
Among other steps, we need to rapidly
– Plant two to four trillion trees and cultivate fast-growing plants, such as bamboo and algae.
– Build/expand public transportation that includes high-speed trains and a dense network of small narrow track light-rail lines (100cm and less, many built on existing roads).
– Build/use ultra-light electric vehicles, including small vans; and convert work and delivery trucks to electric, for slow traffic and short distance use only.
– Build mostly with wood and bamboo, not steel and concrete (buildings, railroad cars, bridges, etc.).
– Move to mostly plant-based diets (including lab-made milk/milk products).
– Halt waste of resources and energy, outlaw bitcoin, most data gathering, and abuses of AI.
– Irrigate forests that are dying due to droughts.
Economies must develop and produce what improves peoples health and quality of life.
● Carbon sequestration must be very much increased. We suggest simple methods like: not burning organic material and preventing its decomposing. Wood, dead plants and organic trash will hardly decompose if kept very dry or cold, or when buried in earth that is immersed in stagnant acidic or very salty water. Another method: sinking the organic material into deep lakes, cold oceans, or dead zones of lakes and oceans.
● And people must learn: Living simply, ethically, ecologically, with more social interactions, promotes health, happiness, and caring communities.