The world is burning, and we are running out of time – How can we hope to move forward as a collective if our society is so discriminative of minorities?

Last night was the ninth night of protesting in the US. Protesting for ending police brutality in every state, and for real, institutional change. As Trump declares war on the American people, economies around the world are reopening after lockdown. Industries, factories, transport, and production; back up and running with haste.

The last few years have been the most environmentally charged time anyone has ever lived through, with public opinion shifting to recognise our biggest existential threat. The media agenda has changed rapidly. From Covid-19 to police brutality protests in America, these issues have rocked society to the core, and rightly so. The biggest health pandemic of our generation paused the world. These protests deal with issues that are inbuilt to our society and have been prevalent for hundreds of years. It is baffling that these are still issues we are facing today. How can we hope to move forward as a collective if our society is so discriminative of minorities?

Earlier this year, the world breathed its first breathe of fresh air for the first time since the industrial revolution. With industry halted, our atmosphere began to balance itself, free from the activity of humans, causing significant measurable change in places around the world. This is the change we have needed, to stop, take a step back and rethink our approach. How is what we are doing impacting the environment? How long will the foods, fuels, chemicals, and plastics we are using poison the environment? How can we live sustainably in this unsustainable system?

In February 2020, a book called ‘The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis’ was published by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, the architects of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. It details two scenarios for the climate in 2050. One where the air is poisoned, millions die each year to respiratory-related illness, billions of people are climate refugees displaced by rising sea levels: a dystopia beyond anyone’s expectations. Another where we were shocked into action, where we acted swiftly in 2020 to curve the catastrophic climate crisis. We changed every part of our society for the better. There’s clean air in each city, carbon emissions have been vanquished, forests cover half of all land and agriculture is unrecognisable.

We must change. First and foremost, we have to create societal change to ensure that no one in society is disadvantaged or discriminated against because of the colour of their skin. We need an inclusive society capable of collective action so that we can move past these issues that should have been resolved decades ago, and attempt to solve the climate crisis, which threatens our very existence and the future of humanity.

 

The worst-case scenario from ‘The Future We Choose’ can be found here.

The best-case scenario can be found here.