COP-21 Accords and Near Term Human Extinction
The effect of the voluntary climate change Accords adopted by 195 nations at the 21st Conference of the Parties, commonly known as the COP-21, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Those Accords, found on the United Nations website, have been severely criticized due to the time for compliance and the lack of enforcement provisions, among other issues. A summary of the Accords was published in the New York Times on December 13, 2015.
In the opinion of Dr. Guy McPherson, a Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Evolutionary Biology and Conservation Biology from the University of Arizona, the Accords are smoke and mirrors, will have no effect on climate change and could well cause increase in carbon emissions. He agrees with James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who also criticized the Accords. Hansen is quoted in the December 12, 2015, issue of as saying the intention to reach a new global deal on cutting carbon emissions beyond 2020, is ‘no action, just promises.’
Professor McPherson is the author, along with Carolyn Baker, of “Extinction Dialogues: How To Live With Death In Mind,” both of whom were guests on Radio Curious in September 2015.
McPherson believes the way to respond to the peril of the climate crisis is for each person to go inward and consider who we are, reach out to our relatives and friends and foster the personal connections that are important to us before it is too late.
When Guy McPherson and I visited by phone from his home in rural New Mexico on December 13, 2015, we began when I asked him for his thought about the COP-21 Accords.
The books he recommends is, “Every Cradle Is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide,” by Sarah Perry, and “Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul,” by Stephen Jenkenson.
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on December 19th, 2015 at 1:29 pm
Greetings from Vermont and from a one-time resident of Ukiah and Mendo Co. (who remembers Barry Vogel!). I appreciated the interview. Yes, we may be moving into a mass extinction event. Climate-wise, we’ve never been here before as humans. However, we’ve also never had the knowledge and technology we have available now. My answer to your question about when will people begin to pay attention: when food and water shortages become too obvious to ignore. We may be able to save ourselves, but not through the existing gov’t & corporate structures.