The Four Horsement of the Apocalypse rode through downtown Copenhagen today to remind world leaders of the consequences of inaction on climate change.
I know this sounds especially dour, whereas I think we all like to keep a positive attitude and believe that we can get through to world leaders and impress upon them the urgency of the moment we find ourselves living in, thereby inspiring them to act. That’s why our message isn’t that the arrival of the Four Horsemen is inevitable, but that we can change the future.
I put together this video of behind-the-scenes footage as well as footage of the Horsemen in Copenhagen’s Parliament Square so that you could have a full picture of this direct communication. Greenpeace’s Finnish climate campaigner, Sini, was kind enough to tell us what was going on.
Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death are especially good harbingers of the future we will face should we fail to keep global temperature rise below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), as these are all likely impacts of runaway climate change.
Climate change threatens to have a devastating effect on food supplies across the world, some of which are already in scarce supply. Some areas of the tropics would see massive crop failures from even a 1 to 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise (about 1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
This would of course bring on malnutrition for millions of people worldwise, while heat waves, floods, storms, and fires would intensify outbreaks of diseases such as dengue and malaria.
An estimated 300,000 people are already dying due to climate change every year, and those deaths are projected to increase to half a million people by 2030 if we don’t act now.
The death toll could rise even higher as resource scarcity and mass migrations bring the displaced and disempowered into violent conflict with other societies.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can change the future, if our politicians take bold and decisive action now.
