MapAid: Climate change, Jules, and us.
Notes from a hybrid business person & aid worker: Chapter 2
Climate change, Jules, and us.
The news on climate change.. is well, patchy. In summary we are told by multiple sources that global warming is coming down the railway tracks, like the railway locomotive with shot brakes…
Literature such as The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells spells it out, and if that’s not enough, there is the clear and compelling science, recorded in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, vouchsafed by legions of climate scientists.
In the years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world’s 60 largest private sector banks, financed fossil fuel investment with over US $4.6 trillion.
The Agreement sets out a global framework to limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, to avoid dangerous climate change. But what has happened ? In summary, while some greenhouse gas emissions have been curbed, developed economies are not cutting emissions consistently or quickly enough to counter growth in emissions. This target seems it will be missed.
In Africa, the effect of climate change on total annual rainfall seems is more or less the same quantity, however, it is now arriving at different times of year and in different places. This confusion of rainfall patterns has resulted in the terrible drought in the Horn of Africa, as reported in the Sunday Times in March 2023 “Where 22 million are on the brink of Starvation” echoing a Guardian article of August 2022 of the same name.
I am a capitalist, and the other day was in Henley at a diner with some friends. And in a genial way, we touched on the the merits of capitalism versus socialism. On reflection, the situation reminded me of Pulp Fiction. You remember the epilogue scene ? Where Jules the killer (aka Samuel L Jackson) resolves the situation, ordering Vince (John Travolta) to back down from shooting Pumpkin (aka Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (aka Amanda Plummer) ? Jules demonstrates he has put himself on the rocky path to redemption, and his bosses’ dirty laundry is not worth stealing. In no uncertain terms, brandishing Mr 9mm, he rams these words home: “Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness”. Check out “CLASSIC SCENE: Pulp Fiction” at YouTube.
I can’t do a Jules on anyone, and bedsides I don't have the tools.
And I drive a fossil fuel vehicle and my clothes shed micro-plastics. Not so good. But in my opinion as a capitalist, I have to be a vector, moving towards a better place. It seems the only option. We are now in the last chance saloon with climate change, and everyone needs to get active and do the right thing, no matter how haphazard or uncomfy.
Haphazard action got us into this mess, and lively haphazard action can get us out.
What is your "Jules idea" ? Go bust the studs on it…
My NGO, Global MapAid is like the mouse that roared. We are working in the Ethiopia with local university partners, to build a mapping system to map shallow groundwater so that policy makers and aid workers who are planning irrigation for small farmers will find water. Or, establish where there is no shallow water, so alternative plans can be made to make sure at least some food can be grown. The maps therefore save time and money.
It seems the least we can do, given that Africa accounts for only about two to three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but suffers disproportionately from it.
Follow Rupert's story of how he founded MapAid, how he grew the idea, and what their solutions are for today's issues in this content series.
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