{"id":40173,"date":"2018-10-16T11:38:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T15:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=40173"},"modified":"2018-10-16T11:41:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T15:41:56","slug":"convo-speaker-jim-shultz-to-emu-students-about-climate-changes-planetary-crisis-you-are-the-chosen-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/convo-speaker-jim-shultz-to-emu-students-about-climate-changes-planetary-crisis-you-are-the-chosen-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Convo speaker Jim Shultz to EMU students about climate change’s planetary crisis: \u2018You are the chosen people\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just days after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report detailing the anticipated impacts of global warming, Jim Shultz visited Eastern Mennonite University with a very clear message for students and their peers everywhere: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are, in a very strange way, the chosen people,\u201d he said in a convocation address: \u201cYou are the very first generation in 10,000 generations of humanity to be born into a planetary crisis. Whether you like it or not, this crisis is going to shape and frame the entirety of your life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shultz is the executive director of the Democracy Center<\/a>, which he founded in 1992. It uses research and analysis, activism, training and support \u201cto strengthen struggles for social, economic and environmental justice,\u201d according to <\/span>its website<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

A long-time activist first in California and now around the world, Shultz lived for two decades in Bolivia, where last year he met \u201cto engage and challenge\u201d EMU students on cross cultural, said <\/span>Linda Martin Burkholder<\/span><\/a> in convocation opening remarks. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Democracy Center’s Jim Shultz visited EMU last week, strengthening ties made with the Bolivia cross-cultural group last year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And last week, just as the nation was grappling with the U.N. report, Shultz came to campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

The crisis \u2013 and the good news<\/b><\/h3>\n

Eleven years, Shultz said. That\u2019s how long humanity has \u201cto rapidly alter\u201d its use of fossil fuels and conduct agriculture before climate change is \u201clocked in.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Already it has fired starting salvos: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe get flooding. We get biblical-level fire seasons in California. We get droughts. We get heat waves,\u201d Shultz said. \u201cWhat we are seeing right now is just the preview of coming attractions; we have entered the time in which we are no longer dealing with the theory of climate change; we are dealing with the opening act of climate change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The many refugee crises right now will be dwarfed in a handful of decades, he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens in 40 and 50 years \u2013 or less \u2013 when the whole parts of the Persian Gulf become so hot and humid that it becomes impossible for human survival for more than 90 minutes outside?\u201d Or, he asked, when drought collapses rural economies in Central America? <\/span><\/p>\n

Not the warm welcoming of refugees, he fears: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be debating at that point whether to build a wall with Mexico. We\u2019re going to be debating whether to put gun turrets on the wall,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not alarmist projections,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are projections based on where we are headed, and we need to pay attention to them\u201d \u2013 which thus far is not happening. \u201cMy generation is not dealing with this. My generation is screwing around, and they are not paying attention, and it\u2019s your future that\u2019s on the line.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s good news, he said: Humanity knows why what\u2019s happening is taking place, and what to do about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

To do<\/b><\/h3>\n

Shultz sees three options for responding to climate change: <\/span><\/p>\n