with Tom Athanasiou

#86 tram from the City

The emerging scientific consensus tells us we have very little time to act if we honestly expect to avoid a global climate catastrophe. To keep below even a 2-degree target, radical cuts in local and global greenhouse gas emissions are required.

As Tom Athanasiou says in the essay "The inconvenient truth": "Two degrees is already a compromised target, one with which we've already negotiated away thousands of species and, probably, millions of lives. Still, we suspect - along with many others - that advocating a maximum 2ºC target may be the best strategic move available. But let's be realistic. The arguments for 2ºC, and for the emissions reductions that are going to be necessary to keep the warming below 2ºC, take us far beyond the bounds of conventional climate policy discourse. In fact, they demand a rather brave new synthesis of scientific realism, ethical clarity, and political ambition. And it's coming time now to admit it."

Yet current mainstream debate focuses on 'reasonable' solutions, rather than necessary ones. In speaking the simple truth about climate change we are likely to be labelled "unrealistic'. In the current political framework,
how do we discuss what is required and pose solutions that will deliver the necessary reductions?