Discuss: Snap into Action for the Climate

Having just plugged into this thread today, I’m glad to see others as appalled as I am about this article and Orion’s publication of it.  I am especially glad to hear Juilanne’s recommendations as to where we should be putting our energy.  Concepts like re-engineering the atmosphere, and like polar cities, miss the point entirely.  It is up to us, each one of us, acting individually and responsibly.  Humans have created huge institutions that have enabled all the damage to take place, and we must learn to reclaim our role as biological species and work individually and collectively in small, self-supporting groups.  We must learn to grow our own food from the resources immediately around us, provide our own shelter and medical care, etc.  When humans learn to do this (and as one trying to make this transition in my life I can attest it is very hard to do, for most of the survival skills we need to know we have been kept ingorant of) then things like migration will happen as needs dictates. 

The real spritual awakening that Mr. Tidwell yearns for will happen not when we build more (fuel efficient) cars or more (wind) farms, but when we learn that we can stop building cars and power plants completely, and survive, as have the vast majority of humans throughout history, quite nicely.

Thanks for the interesting conversation.

I fully accept the reality of climate change and I believe that we must take appropriate actions to reduce the CO2 levels in the atmosphere.  However, I found the sense of breathless panic and exaggeration in this article quite offensive.  The statement highlighted in the red box is an illustration of what I mean.  The author suggests that a world where the arctic ice is fully melted is no longer planet Earth.  How does he feel about planet Earth as it existed in previous geologic periods?  Paleoclimatic data indicate that the Earth has experienced large fluctuations in average global temperature in past eras. Was this not planet Earth?  The whole of civilization falls into an interglacial period.  These periods last about 10,000 years, and that time period has nearly passed. Without human induced climate change, the Earth might be headed for another period of glaciation. Would that not be Earth?  The bottom line is that Earth will abide.  The author’s vision seems very anthropocentric to say the least.  This leads him to suggests that we can fix the situation by “tinkering.” I am not at all enthusiatic about efforts to “tinker” with the climate in order to lessen the impact of global climate change. I don’t believe we understand the climate well enough to undertake such experimentation! This is another example of human hubris.

Greetings Orion readers,

I come to this conversation with sincere concern and compassion as we struggle with unsettling news each day.

The natural systems we have depended on for so long are stressed, as is humanity.

Let’s not arrogantly seed the atmosphere with sulphur dioxide.

The earth may do the job for us. 

Writing in New Scientist magazine, Bill McGuire, professor of geological hazards at University College in London, said: “All over the world evidence is stacking up that changes in global climate can and do affect the frequencies of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and catastrophic sea-floor landslides. Not only has this happened several times throughout Earth’s history, the evidence suggests it is happening again.”
http://environment.about.com/od/globalwarming/a/earthquakes.htm

The latest scientific discipline to enter the fray over global warming is geology. And the forecasts from some quarters are dramatic - not only will the earth shake, it will spit fire.  A number of geologists say glacial melting due to climate change will unleash pent-up pressures in the Earth’s crust, causing extreme geological events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.  A cubic metre of ice weighs nearly a tonne and some glaciers are more than a kilometre thick. When the weight is removed through melting, the suppressed strains and stresses of the underlying rock come to life.

/2004/08/040803095217.htm

The earth abides...perhaps we can honor its way of adapting to our species.

Good point, Paco. IT COULD BE that the Earth will take care of the Earth in its own way, that somehow the very Earth itself will find a way to shut down global warming in such a way that the worst case scenarios that some have imagined (and I plead guilty here!) will not come true, and the Earth will abide, yes.

It could very well happen that way, too. I have thought about that possibility, too.

We should be prepared on all fronts, just in case. But good post, sir! Yes yes yes.

To Paca and Danny,

No no no no, geology was FIRST into the climate-change fray, BEFORE the climatologists got to it. It was geologists studying ice cores from Greenland who uncovered direct evidence of temperature fluctuations and climatic variation, and of the rapid changes that had taken place, historically.

The rest, the dramatization of seismic activity as regional tectonic loading changes with melting of ice is something that will happen. Is happening. Has happened all along. This is hardly new, either.

The tone of the posts, and especially that of the about.com article, may sell page views but it is misleading.

Or is it better to panic now…

Troll

it is better to panic now, than to panic later. it will be too late to panic then. panic now. but gently, in measured tones. stay in control. but yes, panic now.

Cutting emissions is a weak (and very expensive) mitigation strategy.  Besides, it is very unlikely that a rapidly growing population and world economy will cut emissions so fast and drastically that either abrupt climate change or runaway global warming will be avoided:

I know of no realistic person who thinks carbon dioxide emissions are going to do anything but grow. Most European countries are not meeting their emissions goals, and of the ones that have, it’s because their economies are collapsing. In the United States, this notion that we’re going to reduce our emissions by 80 percent is pure fantasy. --Pete Geddes, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, 2 April 2008

“I’m going to tell you something I probably shouldn’t: we may not be able to stop global warming. We need to begin curbing global greenhouse emissions right now, but more than a decade after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, the world has utterly failed to do so. Unless the geopolitics of global warming change soon, the Hail Mary pass of geoengineering might become our best shot.” --Bryan Walsh, Time Magazine, 17 March 2008

“I no longer care much about the science of global warming. To me, the central question, and the one that few are willing to discuss in depth, is: Then what? Fossil fuels now provide about 85% of the world’s total energy needs. Even more important is this corollary: Increasing energy consumption equals higher living standards. Always. Everywhere. Given that fact, how can we expect the people of the world—all 6.6 billion of them—to use less energy? The short answer: we can’t. The developed countries of the world can talk forever about the virtues of solar panels and windmills, but what the energy-poor need most are common fuels like kerosene, propane, and gasoline” --Robert Bryce, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of ‘Energy Independence

Hello thoughtful Orion folk,

I have a copy of the big coffee table book “Planet Earth” by Alastair Fothergill (also on DVD).  It is a spectacular book, but for a time I could not look at it because each time I did I got angry or sad that we have largely messed up such amazingly adapted species and beautiful places. 

Yet I have to take some solace in the fact that we have lived at a time to see the height of biodiversity and functioning systems.  Our technology allowed us to go places, take pictures, and engage in science and observation as never before.  I am so thankful that I have seen wolves and grizzlies in Yellowstone; humpback, right and minke whales in the Atlantic; porpoises and beluga in the Saint Lawrence Seaway; wood storks and roseate spoonbills in Florida; a catamount in Vermont; and so much more. 

I am just as thankful to KNOW the about the 2 million species on earth and to wonder about the possible 3 – 100 million more that I will never see but may exist --- at least at the moment.

The knowledge of this amazing world is such a gift.  And daily I try not to let it be my curse. 

I look at this beautiful book and sometimes I have a good cry and sometimes I celebrate the fact that earth has had a good life—just as we say about 90 year old uncle Jeb at his funeral. 

No living organism is meant to live forever.

I am not saying what we’ve done is okay.  We could have done a much better job of being stewards of the earth.  I just happen to think that the human species is not cracked up to be what a lot of people think it is. Yes, we have created works of art, amazing music, wondrous cathedrals, poetry, functioning civilizations, and much more. 

But perhaps we are an evolutionary experiment that didn’t make it past the high school lab. (Harsh?) Species evolve and face extinction for any number of reasons.  But there is only one species that could be admonished that “they should have known better”.  Somehow our violent, greedy nature just got the best of us.

So we should celebrate the fact that we had a 2.5 million year old picnic on earth with great joy, expanses of knowledge, wonderful inventions, cultural diversity, spiritual blossoming, amazing biodiversity, and …well name your experience.  And at the same time we struggled with plagues, dark ages, wars, societal collapses and somehow were are still at it, on the internet right now discussing our basic humanity and it’s future.

Thus the paradox of what it means to be human.

Best to all,
Paca
(not to be confused with Paco ☺