explain the climate & ecological emergency … in 10 minutes ?

I’m often asked to give an overview of the science of the climate and nature emergency in something like ten minutes…. and this is no small task. How can we capture the interconnected threats to life on Earth, conveying the vast scale and the urgent, urgent need for transformative action?  How can we do that for audiences that we don’t know much about, who may not have had the opportunity to think very seriously about these difficult subjects before? How can we do that in a way that tells the whole truth but doesn’t throw those who hear it into a state of overwhelm, denial, or despair… but instead empowers and motivates?  Is it possible to do this in ten minutes??? 

It feels important to try, and to find out!  So I’ve challenged myself to sit down for just one hour and write down what I think are the absolute core things - without getting distracted by the details however important they are/feel - that any person needs to know to start on their own journey from knowing to acting. It won’t be polished, it won't be perfect - but it can form the basis of something that can be tested and refined. It’s what I know and communicate all the time, so I should have the really core message at my fingertips, right?  It feels daunting nonetheless, but here goes….

Our  Climate  &  Nature  Emergency:  the  bare  essentials

If there were just a few key things I wish as many people as possible would know, but also feel about the climate and ecological emergency… they would be something like these:

The threats are massive and widely underestimated. 
Humans face escalating fires, floods, food shortages and consequent health and societal crises. 

It’s happening NOW,
having a devastating impact on millions of people and countless other species around the world already.

The impacts will get worse,
and are likely to do so very rapidly. Every person and every species will experience those impacts. 

This is extremely unfair 
globally, socially and intergenerationally. 

Current actions are nowhere near enough. 
We need to transform our mindsets and systems if we are to secure a liveable future for ourselves, for future generations and for other species. 

We can make a difference 
 but only if we act now and act together. 

Here is a brief summary of what I mean by each of these…

The threats are massive, and widely underestimated

• We know the Earth is heating up, and it’s heating faster than it has done since the human species evolved. Science is clear that this is a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions, caused predominantly by human activities such as burning fuels, agriculture  and chemical use.
• In parallel the ecosystems that regulate our climate and that we are dependent on for essential food and resources, continue to be destroyed. Humans have radically changed the land - clearing forest, degrading soils, polluting the water air and beyond. Species are going extinct over a thousand times faster than would be expected otherwise. 
• These effects combine to threaten the existence of every species on Earth, for example through heatwaves, fires, floods, storms, food scarcity, displacement and conflict.
• It can be easy to feel like these threats aren’t as bad as they are, especially when we don’t see many leaders, or even the scientists studying these threats, acting proportionate to their own warnings. 

It’s happening now.  

• Since humans began shaping the land on a global scale, we have been destroying irreplaceable ecosystems and disrupting the finely balanced functioning of the wider Earth system.  
• We have already seen direct impacts such as the loss of wild places and species, and there being hotter and less stable climate, and we are now seeing the knock-on effects on humans. 
• There are so many examples that it’s hard to find the ‘right’ record shattering heatwave, raging wildfire, or heartbreaking famine or conflict to highlight. As I write this I’m hearing about the deadly flooding in Valencia, Spain after ‘almost a year’s worth’ of rain fell in a single day.

The impacts will get worse

• The worst effects of the harm already caused are yet to be seen; they take time to unfold… there is a delay between the cause and the full impact. Just one example I think about often is that, even with immediate radical climate action, entire island nations and major population centres will still likely be submerged due to sea level rise by the end of the century. Low-lying coastal cities - London, Los Angeles, Rio and many more - may not remain defendable in my own lifetime. 
• The essential systems that we need to survive on this planet are so incredibly interdependent. Disruption to one part of one of those systems has cascading impacts over time -  imagine the cascading impacts on a food web if the organism at the base of it is wiped out. 
• Worse, we know that nonlinear phenomena involving feedback loops and tipping points can massively accelerate warming and the breakdown of ecosystems.  We know we are perilously close to triggering major irreversible changes of state in our Earth system…  but we do not know exactly how close…or if we have already done so.

This is extremely unfair 

• The people most responsible for causing and exacerbating these threats are very different to those who are most immediately and most badly impacted by them.
• This injustice compounds existing global and social inequalities, for example between countries, wealth levels and generations. 
• A small number of people and organisations have personally profited from knowingly making this predicament worse and/or spreading misinformation to delay action to address it. Despite the now widely accepted science about the climate and ecological emergency, this continues in constantly evolving forms. 

Current actions are nowhere near enough. 

• This section could easily turn into somewhere between a rant and a scream so I’ll keep it extremely brief:  despite talk and advertising suggesting otherwise, it’s hard to think of any examples of governments or major corporations that are acting in line with what science is clear is necessary, or even their own (usually also inadequate) pledges. 
• Our conversations need to transform from action being about doing incrementally-less-harm-than-we-used-to (e.g. slightly reducing the deforestation/emissions/exploitation we cause year by year) to actively making things better (i.e. regenerating and restoring)

We can make a difference 

• There are some frightening changes that are now essentially locked-in… but we, collectively, have a choice about how bad, how rapid and how unfair we allow what happens next to be. 
• What can we do? In a nutshell: 
  • End the extraction, destruction and pollution we have become so accustomed to.
  • Repair, restore and regenerate the natural systems that enable and support life to thrive.
  • Communicate and collaborate to empower and accelerate action. 
• Individualised action has an importance, but we are so much more powerful when we act together.  By influencing the systems, structures and cultures we operate within, we make it easier for one another to take more effective action. 
• We often underestimate others’ level of care and willingness to act - it’s hard to be the ‘first’ to speak up or try something different, it can also feel scary to get behind that first person when they do (even if you’re fully with them in spirit)... but when we are brave enough to show our willingness and our courage we build momentum, we build movements, we build hope and we create change.  

So those were the words that flowed onto a blank page when I gave myself an hour to get them out.  I gave myself an hour… I took almost two. But I know if I hadn’t set that intention I would otherwise have obsessed over referencing and phrasing and would have been less likely to home in on the absolute essentials. I intend to look at this with fresh eyes, perhaps add some visuals (and maaaaybe even a reference or six) to make it more engaging and useful to anyone who reads it.