I know razor-sharp where I was, what I learned in which order, and how the shock spread out in waves.
The day when every channel’s news reported on an event that shook the world. To this day. “A plane has flown into one of the two towers of the World Trade Center.” Today the world and its people remember that one day, twenty-five years ago.
The media will report today, intensely, extensively, informatively, on this drama. Not me. But two other numbers trickled into my empty head this morning at five: 2.0 and 2.6. Degrees Celsius.
What’s on my mind is the climate. Not just the earthly climate with its dramatic changes and their consequences. I also mean the climate in politics. And right now, the climate of fear and threats.
In Ottawa, a damning report on the climate and its state was released. Why now, of all times? Ah, right — attention is focused on other topics in Canadian politics, and the disastrous report buries itself in the flood of bad news. Hold on. Before the burying begins, let’s have a look at what was reported yesterday in Ottawa about the state of the climate.
Canada is a heart-warming country. And, less charmingly: one that has warmed by 2.0°C over 75 years. The North wanted to be top of the class again and scored a full 2.6°C. And yes, these are the consequences of greenhouse emissions produced by us humans.
Whoever causes something has to live with the consequences. Less than ten years ago, scientists figured Canadians wouldn’t be hit so hard by climate change. Well, they were thoroughly mistaken there. Many of the changes have had the label “Irreversible” stuck on them.
If we still don’t hit the brakes, meaning finally implement fast, renewable solutions, then the scenario doesn’t skimp on us. For the future of 2081–2100, mean warming is projected at 5°C compared to the period between 1850–1900. And across large parts of Nunavut, winter warming has a better than 50% chance of exceeding 10°C.
And what do we get for that?
Wildfires will arrive more often and much more intensely.
Freshwater will no longer be automatically available, because snowmelt will start much earlier.
And the heat waves?
I’ll save those for another morning. Today’s enough.
As mentioned: the report has quietly vanished. For now. Just as back then, on September 11, nobody suspected how long a single moment could keep echoing.
9/11 is the date that, for most people, calls up the moment from memory down to the last detail.
In the history of humankind there are millions of 9/11 events. And there will keep being more of them in the future.
Sometimes I force myself to sit down at 9:11 in the morning and spend time with the thing called reflection. Maybe I’ll learn something from the stories of humankind.
Before and after 9/11 in the morning, too.
