Metaphor of our Times

Issue 4, Semester 2, 2019

ALEXANDER BUCK
​
While our roofs are on fire,
and Siberia is burnt down;
While our basements are flooding
and the ice caps melt down,
'We numb ourselves on the couch,
Naively being brainwashed,
Only interested in GoT, or AFL.
As firefighters are ‘discussing’,
No one is spared.
And God is dead. 

Image credit: Washington Post https://wapo.st/2KYSzGM

Climate damage is real. As real as the risk of an aeroplane not reaching its destination if 99% of aerospace engineers agree that it has a critical defect; as real as markets collapsing when 99% of stocks lose all their value.

If it is an aerospace engineer warning you, you won’t take that plane. If it is economists warning you, you will take your savings out of the bank before they disappear into the aether.

On the other hand, if it is only 99% of environmental and climate scientists agreeing, then ‘nah, it’s just a puff made by those “greenies”, sponsored by Al Gore, to enrich themselves,’ not considering the fact that scientists constitute one of the lowest paid professions, who just do their job following a passion, in the pursuit of truth, while following a rigorous method of investigation.

One million species are threatened by extinction, and ours is the million-and-oneth — because we are not above nature, we are part of it. Our evolution into Homo deus is yet to come.

To quote António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the UN, ‘no one, in any country, can avoid the impacts of climate change... Each and every one of us has a responsibility — and an opportunity — to step up and take climate action, starting today, wherever you are.’

You – you! Law student – cannot look the other way.

Climate litigation is sparking all around the world — to date, over one thousand climate change claims have been logged according to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. Per Professor Jacqueline Peel, as a result of climate litigation 2.0, ‘it’s clear that the business community and those who advise the business community, such as commercial lawyers, are beginning to take climate change litigation more seriously.’

Also, don’t forget that every time you use a single-use coffee cup a fish dies (and I have a heart attack) — get yourself a bloody mug to keep at uni!

Every time you use a plastic bag, a dolphin gets entangled in it — get yourself a goddamn reusable bag! Or, even better, grab a box from the store and use that as your container — it works wonderfully. Then you can simply bin it (in the recycling). Et voilà.

Whenever you eat a beef burger, it’s like having nine baths, driving your car twenty-five kilometres and eating seven kilograms of soy. Did you know that the world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people — more than the current global human population? (The Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat, Mark Gold and Jonathon Porritt)

Just please be considerate about our tomorrow as well. Let’s do our best to preserve Nature’s beauty.

More to come.

Alexander is a First Year JD Student.