Re: “Beyond the Paris climate agreement”
I agree with writer Laura Sacks that “now is not the time to be complacent” and that it is important to develop a “moral and ethical framework” for policy discussions that address the impacts of climate change.
Across the world people are suffering due to the effects of these changes. Yet aid agencies are unable to secure sufficient funds to help them because of the more than $1 billion spent globally every day on climate finance, only six per cent of it is goes to helping vulnerable people adapt to the impacts of climate change today. The rest is spent on mitigation, trying to stop climate phenomena that might, or might not, someday happen. This is immoral, effectively valuing the lives of people yet to be born more than those in need today.
People who volunteer for groups like Citizens’ Climate Lobby are undoubtedly well-meaning citizens trying to help the world. But what they don’t seem to understand is that by supporting CCL, a group that promotes the scientifically dubious belief that we can control Earth’s climate merely by regulating our carbon dioxide emissions, they are unwittingly encouraging the continuation of this scandal, one of the greatest ethical tragedies of our time.
Tom Harris, Executive Director, International Climate Science Coalition, Ottawa
