Climate Change Dilemma: Unavoidable Catastrophe or Paradigm Shift: Is the Paris Agreement a Misstep

Dalton, Dr Michael Edward/ Ray, Mr Binayak

ISBN 10: 1729317383 / ISBN 13: 9781729317389

Published by Independently published, 2019

About this Item

302 pages. 9.00x6.00x0.69 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # zk1729317383

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Climate Change Dilemma: Unavoidable Catastrophe or Paradigm Shift: Is the Paris Agreement a Misstep
• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1729317383
• ISBN 13: 9781729317389
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New

About this title

Synopsis

Will the Paris Agreement be effective in addressing global warming? The evidence is not good. For more than twenty years, the international community has been meeting to agree on a strategy. Not only is there still lack of agreement on the need to address man-made global warming but there is little agreement on burden sharing between countries.In the first part of this book, Binayak Ray argues that without changes to the current economic and governance management practices, global action will be insufficient to prevent increases in global temperature above two degrees Celsius. He describes some of the difficulties encountered in reaching an effective resolution. Identifying technical solutions is not a major difficulty. Politics is the major stumbling block. Politicians are the decision makers. Their decisions are assumed to be based on conscious thought processes.Part 2 starts by wondering why humankind who has been able to achieve such feats as travelling to the moon and identifying scientific solutions to stop emitting greenhouse gases, cannot use its ingenuity to adopt these scientific solutions. Consistent with the way science progresses when rational solutions to a problem cannot be implemented, an alternative explanation for the failure to apply effective solutions is considered.What if the decisions made by policy makers are actually strongly influenced by unconscious thoughts? Michael Dalton draws on recent discoveries in evolutionary biology and modern physics to argue that there is a need to reconsider the question ‘Who or what is a human being?’ One answer is that each of us is a colony of genes.The latest research in neuroscience and evolutionary psychology suggests behaviour and thoughts are significantly influenced by our genes. Our genes which have been around for thousands of years have experienced many catastrophes. As a result of these experiences, our genes may have developed ways to ensure their own survival even though their survival strategy may result in major changes to their hosts i.e. mankind. Is global warming just another catastrophe for winnowing out the least fit genes?As our genes lack self awareness yet nevertheless could be driving our social development, evolution of our society may be described by mechanical processes. So, is our reality really a simulation? There is plenty of scientific evidence consistent with our universe being a simulation. What might the possibility of our reality being a simulation mean for us as individuals in terms of how we respond to the threat of man-made global warming?The dilemma referred to in the title of this book is the possibility that the only way we can successfully respond to the challenge of climate change is by changing our understanding of what it means to be human. Only when we accept the idea that each person is a colony of independent genes may we devise effective strategies to deal with climate change.