Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyfinestbxtf
The arrogance to believe that humans can change the climate of the earth is just hysterical. Oh no, the temperature of the earth rose 2 degrees. I guess that’s never happened before in the history of our planet.
https://youtu.be/7W33HRc1A6c |
I’ve never posted here about climate change because I figured it was pointless. However, given the extreme weather occurring constantly and the predictions of climate scientists largely being true, it’s hard to read a post like this and not reply. I know a lot of members on this site feel the same way, but this goes beyond politics. This is about our one and only home.
The quoted post represents the view of many climate change deniers and it never fails to blow my mind that anyone could think this way. I am tired of hearing this noxious argument and here are two reasons why it is a dumb and irresponsible viewpoint in the climate change debate:
1. Sure, the climate has changed drastically in the history of this planet. However, during the Holocene era, which started about 11,500 years ago, the climate has been remarkably stable, in a kind of Goldilocks zone for human growth and development. It’s no coincidence that many anthropologists and historians believe that agriculture and domestication of animals for agriculture occurred about 10,000 years ago. The Earth has gone from a roiling cauldron of magma to something resembling a giant snowball, and millions of species have existed and died out in the planet’s four billion year history.
The point is that we humans were not there to experience those climate extremes and never would have survived them. Before the Holocene, there weren’t that many of us, and we were scattered across the continents, living in small hunter-gatherer bands. Real population growth only started to occur when the climate reached the Goldilocks zone that had the right conditions and stability for agriculture to become sustainable, leading to the development of civilization as we know it.
So, yeah…the Earth is going to be just fine with a warming climate. The Earth has seen it all and survived it all. However, the same is not true for us. Humans have built a global system of commerce that depends on climate stability and has only known a relatively stable climate. Once that starts to break down because of climate change - and we don’t really know when or what the tipping point will be - human civilization will be snuffed out extremely fast. It has been estimated that 90% of the population would be dead within a year of a global blackout, mostly due to starvation, exposure, and lack of access to health care. A climate catastrophe would fundamentally alter our existence, and our global economy has no ability to respond to such drastic change.
The Earth’s climate has changed a lot in its four billion years. Does that mean we can survive a drastic change that occurs in a relatively short period of time? No, it does not. If we continue down our current path, the consequences have been spelled out in detail and we are already starting to see them.
2. This notion that humans are but a mosquito on the Earth’s back, and nothing we do could have any meaningful effect on such a large planet is the view that only someone deaf, dumb, and blind could possibly entertain.
In order to prove my point, I’m going to cite a single example of a time when human industry drastically altered one of the Earth’s most important systems, recognized the damage, then people came together to repair the damage fairly quickly by taking swift collective action, along with legislation across the world banning the chemicals. That system was the ozone layer, and scientists noticed in the 1970’s that a large hole in this layer was forming over Antarctica and Australia. This was a problem because the ozone layer protects us from harmful UV radiation in addition to all kinds of important functions we may not even be aware of. Pretty quickly, scientists determined that the culprit was primarily a group of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons that were responsible. Our use of these chemicals in industrial processes as well as in consumer products had to stop if we were to get a handle on the rapidly growing hole. And that time, we actually did it. We came together and trusted the scientists, stopped using the chemicals causing the problems, and the ozone layer is almost completely healed.
That story is useful because it illustrates two things: how human activity can have a direct impact on the planet and its systems and how collective human action can fix problems our activity and technology has caused. Those two words right there - activity and technology - are the most important ones in debunking the idea that humans cant possibly have any effect on such a large planet. If we were talking about humans on their own, acting without any tools or technology, this would probably be true. However, humans have created technology and industry that has massive, visible effects on the planet and our climate. This is self-evident and to argue the opposite requires a level of selective blindness that is staggering.
Do you know that humans can seed clouds that create rain? Dubai just did it and was hit with a deluge it wasn’t prepared for.
In Manitoba, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world is on the verge of death because of industrial agriculture and its runoff. Take a look at it on Google Maps. You’ll notice that it’s green. That isn’t the natural color of the water; it’s from algeal blooms that feed on the phosphorus contained in the runoff, choking the life out of the lake and turning it to sludge.
Large sections of the world’s largest living organism - the Great Barrier Reef - have bleached and become dead zones because of warming water.
Not long ago, the US redirected and then dammed the Colorado River to turn the desert of Southern California into a vast vista of farms? Is that not an example of humans affecting the Earth’s climate with their technology with their technology?
If that’s not good enough for you let’s look at some more examples: Human machinery has destroyed so much of the Amazon rainforest that it is now a net emitter of carbon instead of the giant carbon sink it used to be.
There’s also Chernobyl, where human technology made a large swathe of the Ukraine uninhabitable to humans. As most of us learned from HBOs excellent film ‘Chernobyl,’ it could have been much worse, had the corium melted through to the full water tanks. In that case, it was estimated that large portions of Europe would have become uninhabitable to humans. With all the nuclear plants on this Earth, the planet’s environment could hypothetically be changed overnight if they were all allowed to melt down. The Earth would survive, but we would not.
Long before humans had gasoline-powered machinery, entire ecosystems were changed by hand. Vast swamps were drained to build St. Petersburg; England chopped down all its forests and converted the land into farms. The list of pre-industrial feats where humans used simple tools to make dramatic changes to their environment could fill pages.
But it isn’t those things causing the climate change that could lead to the end of human civilization. It is the massive industrial systems we have created to transform ecosystems practically overnight. To think that thousands upon thousands of chimneys and car exhausts belching greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere 24/7 would have no negative effect on the Earth because humans are just too small and insignificant is a notion that can be disputed with a simple Google search. In science, there is almost never 100% agreement about any topic. Climate change caused by human industry has such a high % of agreement among scientists that it should be considered settled. It is settled.
And now we are starting to learn that the scientists were being optimistic with their predictions. I don’t understand it. If there were even a 50% chance that our industrial processes and global economy were leading us to alter the Earth’s climate in ways that would make our lives much harder, it would seem prudent to make some changes. Earth is our home and it’s the only one we got. Instead, 97%-98% of climate scientists are unequivocal and we can see and feel the effects ourselves. That includes NASA. Is NASA now suspect?
I don’t know why people are so reluctant to listen to the experts and push the government to get serious about climate change. It is going to make our lives harder and it is going to mean that our grandchildren may not have much of a life to look forward to. The bloody Gulf Stream is nearing collapse and everyone just carries on like everything’s normal. After all, it’s just weather and how can us tiny humans possibly change the climate of such a large planet?
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
