“Can Humanity Get Its Act Together?”

"Can humanity get its act together before it's too late?" as former President Obama put it at the Glasgow Climate Summit. Or will the summit be more just "blah, blah, blah," in the grim estimation of activist Greta Thunberg? Here are the searing facts: To stave off a climate apocalypse, nations must limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. (The world has already heated 1.1 degrees Celsius.) To limit the warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the United Nations, global emissions from fossil fuels need to be cut in half between 2010 and 2030. But instead, emissions are set to RISE over that period.

That's why young people are in the streets. Their future is extremely bleak. Meanwhile, the average age of the officials dithering in Glasgow is 60, so they won't be around for the worst dystopia to come.

President Biden, U.S. climate diplomat John Kerry and Obama himself all want to focus on the silver linings in the clouds -- like the huge amounts of money promised by wealthy polluters to poor nations that are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. But only a small fraction of the $100 billion a year promised to frontline nations has actually been delivered in useful ways. And the bold pledge by 40 nations to phase out coal from their energy systems? The pledge wasn't signed by the two biggest polluters -- the United States and China.

So yes, we must continue to hold global summits like the one in Glasgow, and as Obama advised young people yesterday, they must engage with "messy" politics. What choice do we have? But as the world continues to melt down, the actions in the streets -- which so far have been relatively peaceful in Glasgow -- will grow much more heated too. What other choice will the human race have?