For the past decade or so I was engaged with my investment blog DIY Investor. Having retired from full time work in 2008, I had more time to focus on my hobby of investing and in 2013 I decided to start a simple blog to write about my journey and share some of my thoughts and experience with a wider community of like-minded people.
I tried to invest in a green way aiming to align my investments with my values and lifestyle. Therefore I avoided the fossil fuel companies such as Shell, BP and Exxon as well as the big banks which finance their global operations and instead aimed to invest in greener alternatives such as those engaged in renewable energy.
However, in recent years it has become clear to me that the lack of action in addressing the climate crisis is rapidly leading to the radical destabilisation of life on Earth as we know it. We face floods and wildfires, loss of biodiversity, warming oceans, melting ice sheets. This is leading to massive crop failures and many areas around the world becoming increasingly uninhabitable due to drought or excessive heat.
Our global economies will not be sustainable in a world of accelerating climate change and I have taken some time to re-evaluate my thoughts around investing and the global markets. I am now in my 70s and for the foreseeable future I think my time would be far better spent writing about this climate crisis rather than investing!
Back in 2015 at Paris, the world agreed to limit the global temperature to 1.5C and that has been the centrepiece of efforts to limit warming. But each year climate scientist have been warning that governments are not doing enough or moving quickly enough to meet this target. A senior climate scientist and former head of the IPCC, Sir Bob Watson, no longer thinks we will hit this 1.5C target and is even pesimistic about 2.0C. Based on current pledges from around the world it is estimated warming will rise to 2.7C.
Just this month the World Met Office released their State of Global Climate Report for 2023
It confirms that 2023 was the hottest year on record by some distance with records broken for greenhouse gas levels, ocean heat, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice loss and glacier retreat.
“Heatwaves, floods, droughts, wildfires, and rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones caused misery and mayhem, upending everyday life for millions and inflicting many billions of dollars in economic losses”.
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| WMO confirms 2023 Warmest on Record |
I recall the first time I heard a speech by a young Greta Thunberg at Davos in January 2019 and it’s worth repeating a short extract:
“Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is on fire.
We are facing a disaster of unspoken sufferings for enormous amounts of people. And now is not the time for speaking politely or focusing on what we can or cannot say. Now is the time to speak clearly.
Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that Homo sapiens have ever faced. The main solution, however, is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases.
Either we do that or we don’t.
You say nothing in life is black or white. But that is a lie. A very dangerous lie. Either we prevent 1.5C of warming or we don’t. Either we avoid setting off that irreversible chain reaction beyond human control or we don’t.
Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t. That is as black or white as it gets. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival.
We all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations. Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail”.
It seems very little has changed over the past five years. Global warming continues and I believe efforts to keep 1.5C alive is now gone. The G20 refuse to phase out fossil fuels and the global economy continues with business as usual as we play Russian roulette with the possibility of irreversible climate tipping points.
I’m really not sure how all this will play out in the coming months and years but I will try to play a small part in raising awareness about the significant dangers we all face from the deepening climate crisis.
I hope readers will find future blog articles interesting and if so, please help to spread the word to a wider audience.Thanks for reading and if you have any thoughts on the climate issues feel free to comment below
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