It's late, some incoherent thoughts ..........
Those of you who are familiar with Isaac Asimov's "Foundation and Empire" series of books will already know the direction I am heading in..
In the books, the social scientist Hari Seldon believes that the Galactic Empire is doomed to collapse and that cannot be stopped. But he also believes that hidden (in his books) social engineering can reduce the period of that collapse so a new, better and democratically inclined "Empire 2.0" can emerge.
Applying that to humankind and our damaged biosphere today, one can see the inevitability of the societal collapse that is on the horizon and rapidly approaching. In the sense that it is used even by the UN, there is no such thing as "sustainable economic growth" (see quote below), and no such thing as "sustainable finance" ( a fairly new growth industry being exploited by Cambridge and Oxford Universities, amongst others) . (I've just made myself unemployable again).
For me, the question is whether enough remnants will remain to allow civilisation to survive and adapt and avoid a long period of decline and decay of our species. The phrase "adapt or die" comes to mind. Or maybe homo sapiens will lose the sapiens bit and in a few million years a different intelligent life form may emerge..
For any chance of a less painful transition, efforts to develop renewable energy, farming systems that enhance soil fertility and efforts to limit the damage to the web of life must continue. Perhaps most important of all is the preservation and pursuit of knowledge. The Trump Administration's efforts to wipe climate knowledge from the Government websites is really scary. To give up is to invite collective suicide, differently from that of the Trumps of this world merely in method.
The scientific community has always had those who wonder if our knowledge-based technical society will survive. In the search for extra-terrestrial life some have said it may be a waste of time, as maybe all intelligent life wherever it has emerged in the Universe is has within it its goodbye date. I have seen an estimate of 3? 5? million years date-stamped for our species inside our DNA. But 5 million years is a bit better than 50 years.
So every time an advance in renewable energy is made I raise a faint cheer. Every time another example of a community succeeding in implementing genuinely sustainable farming I raise another faint cheer.
Meanwhile, COP24 has been a bit of a damp squib. From the latest Guardian article:-
Nicholas Stern, the former World Bank chief economist and author of a seminal review of the economics of climate change, said: “It is clear that the progress we are making is inadequate, given the scale and urgency of the risks we face. The latest figures show carbon dioxide emissions are still rising. A much more attractive, clean and efficient path for economic development and poverty reduction is in our hands.”
Sustainable economic development rules, OK?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/16/un-climate-accord-inadequate-and-lacks-urgency-experts-warn