Father and (Grand)son

Let the record play. The sound of an old vinyl is music to my ears. it comes from an ancient record player. “It’s not time to make a change.”

“Hi Grandpa, the time has come! Today BBC News declared that global warming would cause further changes within world living memory. For example, 2016 average concentrations of CO2 hit 403.3 parts per million, up from 400 ppm in 2015. It is the largest increase we have ever seen in the last 30 years and will cause faster temperature rising.”

“Before the Industrial Revolution, there were around 280 parts per million of CO2 in the air. That amount had varied very little for 8.000 years. After industrialization, greenhouse gas emissions rose, and now the world needs to cut down to around half of today’s levels to constrain the global mean temperature increase to 2°C.”

“Why are CO2 levels so high today?”

“Because of industrialization. There are more people alive today than ever before, and the global population is expected to grow from 7 billion to 10 billion by 2050.”

Not only are there more people; they live longer too.

Lethal diseases that frightened me when I was a child, can now only be found in history books. A healthy population lives longer using more energy, producing pollution and breaking the natural balance.
Extinction is a natural part of evolution and is being accelerated by human activity. As habitats change, plant and animal extinctions are predicted to occur faster than species adaptation.

Significant steps forward in the understanding of our work have come from scientific discoveries. In the past, our view of the world was very different. Scientific research, engineering, and technology have not just changed our understanding of the universe, they’ve changed our societies.”

“Damn it! How much the world has changed from the past!”. And the song goes on… ”Just relax, take it easy! Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy.”

Eusebio Loria