As of 2007 the Earth System has already undergone profound
global change of which global heating is the most immediately
evident profound impact. It is getting hot, and it is happening
fast. Many leading scientists tell us we have 10 years at most
given current trends before climate change becomes irreversible
and dangerous, beyond the generally accepted rise of 2 degrees
Celsius considered adaptable (we are about 1/3 the way there).
Yet the chortling television weather people tell us the
unprecedented wave of global mild weather - really a lack of
winter in many parts - is not climate change. We are encouraged
to take advantage of our good fortune and get out there and play
golf. At what point will abrupt climate change and deterioration
of the Earth System's life giving biosphere be recognized as a
global ecological emergency, and responded to as such? And will
it then be too late to limit damages, or even to survive?
Global warming is not a slow, gentle, pleasant rise in
temperatures to be savored. It is an abrupt fundamental break
down in the Earth System's climate sub-system that threatens the
Earth's, humanity's and your family's ability to live. It is not
enough to blame the weather on El Nino, which itself can be and
is exacerbated by climate change. As climate change continues
unabated by systematic policy responses, and "wacky weather"
more prevalent, we can expect immediately budding trees to die
from later frosts, agriculture to struggle to define growing
seasons, pest insects to multiply, and ecosystems to deteriorate
and die.
The ability of individuals, communities and nations to deny the
obvious is amazing. People do not like hearing that their
consumptive, wasteful lifestyle is destroying God's creation.
For most our addiction to lethargic comfort is so great, our
ignorance of ecology and our total dependence upon a healthy
biosphere so complete, and our psychological inability to grasp
that humanity has overrun the biosphere becoming the dominant
force in nature so absolute that we do nothing as the greatest
avertable disaster to ever face civilizations looms -
increasingly recognized but not nearly sufficiently addressed.
Humanity is deeply within the Anthropocene era whereby our
presence is the greatest force shaping the biosphere. We are
witnessing the jarring collapse of the Earth's most recent
climate equilibrium, and depending upon how much climate forcing
occurs from continued emissions, there are no guarantees what
the next climate will look like or even be regularized within a
decent time period. And the longer term results will be
calamitous - extreme weather including super storms, floods and
droughts, massive crop failures, vegetation die-back over whole
regions, a proliferation of tropical diseases, rising seas
destroying cities, a massive refugee crisis and a general
breakdown of anything resembling dependable climatic patterns.
Don't believe me? Walk outside right now - see or feel anything
different? Are the trees blooming in the middle of winter like
in Washington D.C. and New York? Is there a lack of snow as in
Minnesota and Europe, while other areas like Colorado get dumped
upon? Are the rains failing as with Australia's "Big Dry"? So
much of the global ecological system's processes and patterns
which provide the life-giving context for human civilization
have been lost and changed, and it continues to intensify.
Essentially no natural processes are assured as a very different
Planet emerges - climate patterns, water supplies, ocean
fisheries, soil fertility, terrestrial ecosystem energy and
nutrient cycling are all in doubt.
Many rightly do what they can individually, but are discouraged
by the fact that many necessary changes like widespread public
transportation, caps on emissions, and universal adoption of a
low carbon energy economy requires societal changes beyond an
individual's immediate grasp. Goddamn it, snap out of it! I want
to shake every climate denier and ambivalent Earth slayer,
slapping them in the face to awake them from their slumberous
death march. We are witnessing a human caused disintegration of
ancient climatic cycles, with anthropogenic emissions forcing
the global climate beyond what has always been a high level of
variability.
We must get past the ingrained illusion that humanity has not
become a planetary ecological force. And that the changes we are
witnessing in a single lifetime are good. As the ecologically
ignorant chortle, pleased to be outside in winter in short
sleeves, perhaps they should consider how global heating will
impact their water, food and shelter requirements for life - to
say nothing of the economy and their prospects for employment.
How deeply and sadly we are in denial regarding the consequences
of the abrupt climate changes we are witnessing. The life giving
biosphere is in tatters and near collapse because of you and me
and everyone. We are witnessing the logical conclusion of
deforesting 80% of the world's natural ecosystems while working
on the rest, breeding and increasing in numbers recklessly,
using fossil fuel energy wastefully, and believing our
lifestyles and consumption are independent of the Earth.
Massively reducing emissions must become this next greatest
generation's central call to duty. Dramatically and rapidly
reducing greenhouse gas emissions must become the central
organizing principle of governments, business and individuals.
Contracting rich nations' carbon emissions, while allowing
materially poor nations to converge with the rich's level of
emissions, is the only way forward that is both equitable and
likely to be successful. We need contests, and publicity for
best practices, and technology sharing, and a rejection of coal,
and emission caps, and global carbon trading, population
control, huge renewable energy subsidies and so much more.
Only massive public and political pressure - now - can save the
Earth and all her species. The recent vote in the U.S. was a
repudiation of oil industry governance. Now it is up to
Democrats to stop pandering on gas prices and propose a
progressive, workable carbon tax; ratify Kyoto and meaningfully
rejoin international climate talks; launch an "Apollo project"
supporting renewable energy, and generally for the U.S. to get
on the ball and rejoin the league of civilized nations that are
working on climate solutions.
I exhort all that read this to break the denial that the current
"wacky weather" is natural; it is more, much more; the start of
systematic collapse of being as we know it. And I ask that you
help other non-ecologically attuned people grasp what their way
of life is doing to creation - risking ridicule as an acolyte of
ecological truth. Take responsibility personally, and become
involved in the great climate change/ecological sustainability
movements that are set to rock this world - bringing forth the
necessary societal changes. Time is short, but solutions exist.
Save the climate, save the Earth, save yourself and your
posterity. Get active, organize, agitate, protest and above all
else reduce your carbon emissions!
