Warm Enough? (There Is Bad News ánd Good News) - A Biosphere Project Blog
- filipvk
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
Dear friends,
Someone suggested a while ago that I should once more write something about heat waves, in particular about the extreme heat wave that has gripped Europe over the past few weeks.
Well then, I would like to oblige, but what more is there to say?
It’s all been said already—hundreds or thousands of times since the 1970s.
It is starting to sound a bit like a broken record, a needle that keeps getting stuck in the same groove.
First of all, I’d like to ask for something like a minute of silence for all the people in Europe who have now experienced record-breaking heat—and there are a great many of them. More than 190 million people endured extreme heat stress, and many of them will not have survived now that this “heat dome” has passed. More than half of Europe’s 850 cities groaned and struggled under relentless record temperatures, which broke the 40 degree Celsius (105 degree Fahrenheit) mark in several places.
And even at night, temperatures remained exceptionally high (unlike during previous heat waves), making it difficult to recover from the heat stress. Infrastructure and technology failed; railways had to keep trains in the depots; nuclear power plants were shut down because the cooling water from rivers was too hot; hospitals had to postpone surgeries and other critical care, schools were closed, and so on and so forth. Our high-tech world isn’t really equipped to handle temperatures above forty degrees celsius.
And yes, this is just the beginning.
And yes, as always, there is good news too, but let me first continue with the bad news—then we’ll have that out of the way. Stick with me for a moment, because what follows is actually good news. But that good news won’t consist of miraculous tech fixes, because the hope for technological quick fixes is precisely part of the problem.
The heat wave in Europe, for example, was small potatoes compared to the one in India, where conditions are gradually becoming unbearable for humans. For weeks, temperatures across large parts of the Indian subcontinent soared to nearly fifty degrees Celsius (122 degree Fahrenheit), and the limit of what people can endure has gradually been reached or far exceeded. There was little to no coverage in the Western mainstream media of that heatwave, which literally affected hundreds of millions of people—a pattern that is becoming increasingly clear: as climate disasters increase, media coverage of them decreases.
I could once again list all the other climate disasters of the past few months here—the tens of thousands of deaths from heat or floods worldwide—but I no longer know what good that would do. Rather than shaking people awake, it seems to lead to a kind of catatonic paralysis, a form of what is called “collective bystander syndrome.”
The planet has now, in fact, warmed by about one and a half degrees celsius—we can safely say that, since that threshold has been exceeded for three years in a row.
Those who claim we can still meet the Paris Agreement’s target suffer from a persistent form of denial or wishful thinking: we’ve already reached that 1.5-degree mark, and the planet isn’t going to cool down anymore. But what’s more: our current trajectory will lead to three degrees or more of warming by the end of this century—possibly much sooner—unless we initiate an unprecedented change of course. Anyone who faces up to what 1.5 degrees of warming is already doing to the world must conclude that we are heading toward very, very difficult times. And anyone who refuses to see this or continues to deny it is doing neither themselves nor their descendants any favors.
But we must not only acknowledge this and truly face it head-on; we must also not let it discourage us. And not letting ourselves be discouraged means: seeing the bigger picture, and also looking far beyond the terrifying disruption of the mild climate that has made our “civilization” possible over the past 10,000 years (a word I always put in quotation marks, because I agree with philosopher Daniël Schmachtenberger that we have never actually reached the stage of true “civilization” yet) .
What does it mean to see the bigger picture?
First, that what we call the “climate crisis” is merely the tip of the iceberg—a symptom of a much larger and deeper crisis in our biosphere. It’s the fever of an organism that is now very ill, and as long as we don’t see that, we’ll keep looking for the “solutions” in the wrong places. I’ve repeated this many times in this blog; as I said, it’s starting to sound like a broken record. But then again: they say repetition is the mother of learning, so here we go.
At first glance, this may seem like only more bad news, but what lies beneath the tip of that iceberg isn’t just more problems and crises—it’s also a great many potential remedies that are actually right there for the taking. Precisely because the problems are so much more complex than we generally realize—and cannot be reduced to “merely” an excess of CO2 in the atmosphere—there are also far more ways to restore balance to our biosphere than we usually realize. In fact, everything that needs to be done is already happening somewhere—just not yet on the scale required or with the national and international coordination that’s needed. More on that soon in this blog.
So now I come to the more or less good news: if we look at all the clinical data—not just the fever—thoroughly analyze the symptoms, and identify all possible causes, then entirely new paths emerge that can lead to a cure. Paths that many do not yet suspect exist, and that are rarely, if ever, highlighted in our mainstream media.
Most commentators in the international media still emphasize the role that fossil fuels play in climate disruption. And that role is undeniably important and cannot be ignored. But the impossibility of breaking free from our dependence on fossil fuels within the necessary timeframe leads either to discouragement—there’s nothing we can do; we’re doomed—or to stubborn techno-optimism: with nuclear power plants, electric cars, and solar panels, we will succeed.
I’ve already explained why that techno-optimism is misplaced and not based on reality in the blog posts ‘Why We Can’t Just Do It’ and ‘Renewable Salvation?’ As for why the focus on CO2 as the sole culprit is too narrow, I shared the essay by Richard Heinberg in “Why Climate Change Isn’t Our Biggest Ecological Problem, and Why Technology Won’t Save Us.”
The disruption of our biosphere has to do with literally just about everything we do and don’t do: first and foremost, agriculture—in particular livestock farming—and our dietary habits, along with industrial fishing and our economic system based on endless exponential growth.
At first glance, this seems even more discouraging: we won’t save ourselves simply by using fewer fossil fuels—something we’re failing to do anyway because our dependence on them is far too great. But actually, it’s good news: there are countless more ways to have a massive impact on the balance of our living biosphere in the relatively short term, and all of these ways can collectively have a life-saving effect on climate disruption.
It won’t be easy, however—on the contrary—because it will require a major lifestyle change on our part, especially when it comes to food (see my blog post “Very Important Message to All”). But more than our individual actions and well-intentioned efforts—such as driving or flying less and consuming less—our survival will depend on the extent to which we once again realize that we are all interdependent, that we are all deeply connected to one another and to the planet, and that this planet and everything on it, including us, is fundamentally a mysterious wonder. We must reconnect with our planet as Lover and as Self, as the great Joanna Macy reminded us time and again. And then there’s a good chance we’ll start doing the right things almost automatically, because it is love that will show us the way.
If that statement triggers your cynical side, it proves my point: it is our cynicism and our lack of faith that will be our undoing if we cannot reconnect with the greater whole that is our living biosphere.
Well, I’ve proclaimed that many times in this blog, and I’ll continue to do so. That broken record that keeps playing the same tune on and on might, over time, manage to kindle a spark even in the most skeptical mind—a spark of trust, hope, and love.
You see, I don’t feel like writing about these heat waves purely in terms of CO₂, the evil fossil fuel industry, or the inevitability of the disasters looming over us. The fever is a symptom, not the disease. Let’s not fixate on the fever (no matter how severe it may be), but rather focus all our attention, intelligence, and creative energy on the underlying disease(s).
In this blog, I will continue to write about all the means available to create a new world that can exist in balance with this living biosphere: developing resilience in our society as a buffer against the increasing impact of climate disasters, developing regenerative agriculture, phasing out livestock farming and industrial fishing, reforming our economic system with an emphasis on degrowth or eco-socialism; the ecological, economic, and social redistribution of income and wealth; new forms of governance and self-governance; reforming political and economic systems according to bioregions; and so on and so forth.
And as the icing on the cake: the exploration of new worldviews emerging from the latest scientific discoveries, which will cause us to view ourselves and the world in an entirely different way. Because that, of course, is the heart of the matter: everything we believe about the world and ourselves.
I wish you all some cool and rainy weather (something we will come to value more and more) , and hope this blog post finds you and your loved ones in good health, along with the enduring hope that we will find our way through this labyrinth and this test of maturity for humanity—because that is exactly what it is: an exam of sorts to see if we can move on to the next level. And the only way to pass that test successfully is to know that we are connected to one another on a very deep level.
Thank you for reading, and until the next installment,
Take care,
Filip
