Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Climate Change Forum A Stressed Planet

In releasing its latest comprehensive report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focuses an important spotlight on the current state of the Earth?s climate. Climate change is just one of the many symptoms exhibited by a planet under pressure from human activities. "Global environmental change, which includes climate change, threatens to irreversibly alter our planet," says Kevin Noone, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). Global studies by IGBP show that human-driven environmental changes are affecting many parts of the Earth?s system, in addition to its climate. For example: * Half of Earth?s land surface is now domesticated for direct human use. * 75 percent of the world?s fisheries are fully or over-exploited. * The composition of today?s atmosphere is well outside the range of natural variability the Earth has maintained over the last 650,000 years. * The Earth is now in the midst of its sixth great extinction event. For the full article: Click Here .

And here, all these years, I've been sounding like a nut.

We just don't get it, do we?

If one measures action rather than words ... no we don't.

And it will return us to a quality of life not experienced since we lived in caves.

Back in 1985 I read a book "The Gaia Atlas of Planet Management", in which these very same issues were presented. 22 yrs on, nearly 2 billion more people in the world, and we're still at square one.

It's been said that the best way to solve these problems is to change our lifestyles. I think that in order for one to change one's lifestyle significantly, one would need to become not just a little eccentric, but be a social outcast, effectively snubbing the way of life of everybody one knows, not to mention the prevailing social system. We're also up against the nay-sayers for whom nothing will be of any help, and the hypocrites who make demands regarding what we must do, but are unwilling to do themselves. Society is finely balanced, and I can easily imagine a descent into anarchy with the destabilisation that could result from sudden 'retrograde' changes.

I believe that we must rely heavily on science and technology to supply solutions. International co-operation must be cultivated and increased. Rather than spending untold wealth on ?fighting the war against terrorism? ways should be found to garner co-operation and good will. The huge resources should be diverted to R & D in any field that has potential for answers to our most pressing problem: the survival of our civilisation.

Take a good look at what happened in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina.

I read an article in Scientific American a year or two earlier showing, with science, how the outcome was inevitable: Nothing happened.

Now they spend billions rebuilding the city when anyone with an IQ over room temperature knows it will happen yet again.

It took WWI and WWII before Europe understood the words of the song "when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn." It seems significant catastrophe will be required before humans rise to the challenge creating by soiling their own bed.

Redewenur wrote:

"Rather than spending untold wealth on ?fighting the war against terrorism? ways should be found to garner co-operation and good will."

Ah yes. But the war against terror can diguise an empire building enterprise. Ways to garner co-operation are completely immune to such disguises. It's much more difficult to achieve as well. Also I can't imagine any political party in any democracy gaining votes by saying they will do it. The war against terror, on the other hand, is perfect material for getting votes.

I tend to agree with Dan:

"It seems significant catastrophe will be required before humans rise to the challenge creating by soiling their own bed."

Reluctantly, I agree. You are probably both right - but, of course, we can only hope that you're not.

I've touched on this in the past, the thought that it would take a mega-disaster to galvanize people into action. I speculated that the death of thousands of Penguins in Antarctica would be the lightning rod. With all the pitiful starving birds dying on TV, how could the nay-sayers keep up the "You guys are a bunch of Chicken Littles, GW is Left Wing BS, it's all a natural part of Nature" line? But even then, would Chinese TV choose to show a story like that?

Yes, that might sway things, but,

"would Chinese TV choose to show a story like that?"

They might not see any point. With due respect the great nation of Chinese people, those who can cheerfully dunk fully conscious dogs and cats into boiling water might be quite impervious to the plight of birds in distress. That's not a racist remark, it's a comment on cultural diversity.

Also, notwithstanding the enormous economic changes in China, many of its population still live hard and difficult lives. Penguins in Antarctica do not feature high on the personal radar of someone who is enduring a life of grinding poverty and subsistence living. It is ironic that it is only when people escape from such dire conditions that there is time for them to worry about the environment, and then their increased consumption of resourses contributes greatly towards the problem. With the ongoing economic expansion of SE Asia, China and India the future is not looking too good for any of the polar fauna as the ice melts further.