IPCC - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - had it’s latest conference a couple of months ago in Katowice, Poland. Widely reported throughout the world, IPCC got a lot of attention. One of the speakers at the conference was Sir Richard Attenborough, whom most of us know from his splendid nature documentaries. He had an urgent message to give to the rest of the world.

The organization is becoming increasingly familiar to most of us. As the global warming is on the increase, IPCC is of course in the forefront of climate change issues. The situation is getting serious. Perhaps even serious enough to one day warrant a major change in the control of anything to affect these issues. Perhaps we could one day all agree that governments around the world should and must fall under the expert jurisdiction and rulings of IPCC in order to save our planet.

One of the founders of IPCC was the Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin. He died back in 2007 and isn’t here to see what’s going on. The rest of us will witness whatever will be ahead of us. Hopefully part of it is a dramatic change in attitudes not only in the minds of people (manifesting more and more all the while), but also in the workings of governments around the world.

One of the biggest issues affecting our climate will always be air travel. And also one of the hardest issues to deal with as most of us - who can afford it - do want to keep our trips to the sun and elsewhere, e.g. to see relatives. No matter how environmentally good we are otherwise, our travels by air will do the utmost damage the minute we get on that seat on a plane. It is no secret that the richer you are, the more likely you are to be a bigger problem climate-wise.

One of these days we do have to resolve that issue, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think that there will one day be a quota for each citizen on this planet for air travel. Perhaps one day we’ll be wheeling and dealing in an air quota market. Or perhaps there will be nothing to buy and sell. Only time will tell how precarious the situation will be.

Meanwhile, not a day goes by that we don’t need to do something about this. Like eating more vegetables, and less (or no) animal products. Favoring public transportation. We can all contribute in so many ways. And if we do fly, start thinking about it being one of the countable future flights we’ll be doing so that there will be a future - for us all.

Sources: https://www.ipcc.ch/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/05/sea-levels-may-rise-more-rapidly-due-to-greenland-ice-melt