The word mining comes from the word "mineral," and open pit mining is just one type of land degradation. There are others and for the most part Kyoto missed the land use issue and focused primarily on reduction of carbon dioxide. That is not to say Kyoto Protocol was not important or a folly, but, it was some what incomplete in the vigor it takes to reverse the climate crisis.
All the buffers to a hot Earth has to be in place. Forests, oceans that are not acidifying or heating, intact coral reefs, reconstituting ice structures, greenhouse gas emissions ended and global conservation principles that value land use that returns forests from open pit mines.
This is not a dreamscape. It was not that long ago when Earth had a far more benevolent traverse around Sol. Third rock from the sun was not turning lives into disasters day after day with droughts, fires, tornadoes, record setting storms and floods.
There is a great deal that can be done. What is amazing to me is that while those that thirst for money see the mining as essential and important, they don't see the rainbow at the end of the profit in valuing the Earth.
Pope Francis stated this is our common home. Earth is our common home and we need to honor that with a reverence for the natural world.
Earth is often thought of as "The Blue Marble," but, it is more than then oceans, it is land and plenty of green color covering that land. In facing the future it is the obligation of generations today to protect the land and have reverence for it's beauty.
One concept that the Wall Street types, including Republicans, don't seem to understand through ignorance, but, more "convenient ignorance," is that this episode of warming is not normal. There has been one other warming period of Earth, but, it was not abrupt. The ice ages were not abrupt. This is not simply climate change, it is abrupt climate change. This episode of warming on Earth is happening far too quickly to allow species to adapt. This time it is also too extreme. The high temperatures are not showing a reversal, only upward on the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales. There is no oscillation into coolness as one would expect if Earth was ending a natural cycle. There is only movement to higher and warmer temperatures and greater danger and peril. We must act to end this deadly trend that has already taken a toll of human life.
