Dealing with Global Climate Change
Not that you needed another, but here’s an article painting a frightening picture of what life on planet Earth will look like by 2050. One of the things I found interesting about it is that it offers this theory for the reason for our inaction at this critical point in time, as the oceans are rising and the species are disappearing: “One answer may be found in our DNA. Growing evidence suggests our brains aren’t wired to handle future threats. We may be hardwired to deal with the present proximate, not the future probable.”
I’m reminded of what my friend Tom Konrad told me in an interview:
Humanity has shown time and time again that long term planning is our weakness. I don’t want to offend the creationists, but if we had been designed, we would not have this character flaw. We are emotionally designed for hunter-gatherer life. And in hunter-gatherer life, you do the same thing every year if it worked last year. Well, that’s exactly what we’re doing. But we have come to the point where what we do changes our environment.
Of course, the problem is exacerbated by the enormous funding from the ultra-right wing, aggressively promoting the idea that global climate change is some sort of liberal hoax. But I wonder what we’d do if there were in fact a consensus about antropogenic climate change. As the creatures we’ve evolved into being, do we as a species have what it takes to band together and make sacrifices for the common good?
It’s a hard question to answer. And in any case, it strikes me that we’re a long way from finding out. Thus far, the only product of the international conferences in places like Copenhagen and Cancun is bickering.
By the time global climate change becomes a serious problem, those denying it may have died of old age leaving their descendants to deal with it. Their descendants will not look back with kindness upon their ancestors.
I too will be gone before it becomes a serious problem, but I believe in leaving things in good order for the next generation.
If you want to see “doom and gloom” read the SciFi novel “The End of the Dream” by Philip Wylie. (1972, Doubleday) I have a copy that I keep just to remind me to speak up even if people doubt that global warming is true. Incidentally, my favorite line is, “Can you really afford to be wrong?”
Re: “Can you really afford to be wrong?” – yes, that’s it exactly. The consequences of ignoring the impending disaster as incalculably large.
Right; we cannot afford to be wrong, assuming that being wrong means denying climate change.
If we assume that climate change either will not occur or will not be a problem and as a result do nothing to prevent it and it does occur, the effect on civilization could be a disaster greatly exceeding the bubonic plagues in Europe.
If we mistakenly assume that climate change will occur and work to prevent it, we will simply do what would have to be done anyway as we run out of fossil fuels.
I wish it were that simple, but we’re not running out of coal or natural gas. They have issues galore, but scarcity isn’t one of them.