Re: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health
Dear Editor,
The biggest environmental impact we have seen was due to Covid itself. The planetary carbon emissions significantly reduced due to transport freeze - no planes or cars or buses etc. This was not man-made (as far as we know). It was an event of nature. Such an environmental "Covid Effect" if it were sustained should bring about some significant change. An intervention of this scale is required it seems to offset the progressive destruction outlined in your editorial. This will not happen because human nature doesn't change its spots. People will keep doing what they are doing as long as they get away with it. To change human behaviour, (and this is what we are speaking about), a powerful deterrent or stimulus is needed. A recent editorial in Science discusses the Will to Fight and shows that it correlates with deeply held convictions and commitments usually of a spiritual, cultural or patriotic hue.[1] It also shows that success in an venture requires cohesion and unity of purpose in the group.
Where are these features in your suggestions to halt temperature rise? The big carbon emitters are either absent or underrepresented in your journal listing - USA, China. You cannot cool the planet if fires are burning wildly in several big countries. Such editorials are aspirational and naive and like arranging the proverbial deckchairs on the Titanic. Something far more courageous, honest and powerful is needed. A force of nature similar to the Covid Effect is needed. Maybe when the White House spontaneously combusts due to soaring heat, or when Tiananmen Square gets flooded due to sea level rise we might see change?
1. The will to fight.SCOTT ATRAN. SCIENCE..3 Sep 2021:Vol 373, Issue 6559; p. 1063. DOI: 10.1126/science.abl9949
Competing interests:
I object to human bashing and overpopulation being trotted out as the cause of all woes. Northern Hemisphere under-population is the real issue.
08 September 2021
Eugene Breen
Psychiatrist, Associate Clinical Professor
Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin, University College Dublin
Rapid Response:
Re: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health
Dear Editor,
The biggest environmental impact we have seen was due to Covid itself. The planetary carbon emissions significantly reduced due to transport freeze - no planes or cars or buses etc. This was not man-made (as far as we know). It was an event of nature. Such an environmental "Covid Effect" if it were sustained should bring about some significant change. An intervention of this scale is required it seems to offset the progressive destruction outlined in your editorial. This will not happen because human nature doesn't change its spots. People will keep doing what they are doing as long as they get away with it. To change human behaviour, (and this is what we are speaking about), a powerful deterrent or stimulus is needed. A recent editorial in Science discusses the Will to Fight and shows that it correlates with deeply held convictions and commitments usually of a spiritual, cultural or patriotic hue.[1] It also shows that success in an venture requires cohesion and unity of purpose in the group.
Where are these features in your suggestions to halt temperature rise? The big carbon emitters are either absent or underrepresented in your journal listing - USA, China. You cannot cool the planet if fires are burning wildly in several big countries. Such editorials are aspirational and naive and like arranging the proverbial deckchairs on the Titanic. Something far more courageous, honest and powerful is needed. A force of nature similar to the Covid Effect is needed. Maybe when the White House spontaneously combusts due to soaring heat, or when Tiananmen Square gets flooded due to sea level rise we might see change?
1. The will to fight.SCOTT ATRAN. SCIENCE..3 Sep 2021:Vol 373, Issue 6559; p. 1063. DOI: 10.1126/science.abl9949
Competing interests: I object to human bashing and overpopulation being trotted out as the cause of all woes. Northern Hemisphere under-population is the real issue.