There’s a definite tendency for climate change to get shuffled back to the back of the political agenda whenever possible.  This is probably because it’s difficult and expensive to correct the damage we continue to do to our planet.   For democratically elected governments it’s simpler to push decisions into the future in order to allow some other leaders to deal with the problems.

The problem is that global warming doesn’t stop for these political events, the planet get’s hotter and any solutions become more and more difficult to achieve.  It was estimated in the UK that the majority of Government time over the next five to ten years will be focused on the withdrawal from Europe. Unfortunately although it seems a big deal – Brexit is really a minor political issue compared with the global challenges facing the planet.

One of the challenges is to ensure people really appreciate that there are a myriad of effects of global warming happening right now all across the planet.   For example in Siberia, the permafrost has started meting for the first time in decades in certain areas.  This has resulted in a serious outbreak of anthrax which was previously  frozen in a reindeer carcass from years ago.

In Iraq, the government has been suspended frequently simply because it is too hot – is there a temperature where democracy starts to melt away?  Kuwait has seen the thermometers hit 129F (54C) over the Summer, which is simply too hot for humans to survive for any length of time without air conditioning.

These are just a very small subset of the sort of problems  that will only increase. They’re obviously not just the big cataclysmic events you might catch in a disaster movie, although than to Netflix blocking proxies I don’t see that many of those any more.  It’s more about a myriad of local problems which can cause lots of damage and will slowly lead to mass migrations as much of planet becomes slowly uninhabitable.   The economic and human costs will be enormous, the political ramifications will eventually dwarf any other issue – which is why it’s incredible that global warming get’s sidelined so often.

It is a global change, it’s supported by pretty much all the available climatic evidence.  It’s worth remembering that when someone points out that they haven’t been to the beach or had the barbecue out in order to disprove global warming.  This year has seen the hottest July since records began, that’s highest average temperature across the globe.  The records are from the end of the 19th century but there’s reason to believe that this record predates that for some time.

James Collins

Blogger, Commentator – Using a Proxy for Netflix