Friday, August 13, 2004
It's Getting Hot in Here:
The world is getting hotter and hotter. But not everywhere. In Ottawa this year it has been one of the coldest in the last twenty years. My pool hasn't gone above 22 degrees Celsius( around 74 F) once. Only 2 days in July where the temp. went above 30 Degrees C. It's all part of our new world. Hotter sometimes someplace, while colder in others. No real way to predict where and when accurately. I actually had someone argue with me that this is all part of a global cycle that we can't do anything about. While the earth does go through these cycles.. they take thousands of years to change, not decades. There is no way to tell what the total effect such a drastic and fast change might be. The result could be anything from an ice age to a new Mars. I would have thought this so obvious that debate on at least this issue could be put aside. There is absolutely no way we are going to make changes so long as people bury there heads in the sand and pretend that we are not responsible for these changes. It's time to take this responsibility and to make the changes that may save our planet and ourselves. Any other thinking than this is simply lunacy( I would say wishful thinking.. but somehow I think this just does not reflect the seriousness of the situation). The balance of the eco-system worldwide has been significantly disrupted. We must either restore this balance or find a new balance or find a new world to live on. There really is no debate anymore. In the seventies, there was much debate among the experts about these points. Very few are arguing about it anymore. Those who still do put all of us at risk by slowing the potential for finding solutions to the problem. Many of these solutions already exist. Fortunately the price of fuel may force us to do what our ignorance prevents us from doing. As the price of gas skyrockets due to diminishing reserves we will be forced to use alternatives. Solar and wind power, hydrogen fuel cells, geo-thermal heating, and disciplined use of available power all can have a dramatic effect on the environment. We must reach the point where we have a net impact of zero on the planet. But before we reach that point, we must first reverse the impact we have already had. Only then can we become a truly sustainable civilization. Until that time comes we will become more and more in decline as the world desperately tries to save itself by becoming more hostile to humans. There are many signs that this is happening. Everything from the climate to shark attacks to the aggressiveness of the animals and insects points to this. And it's going to get worse....much worse. We haven't really felt the impact of new diseases, viruses and toxic stress. But we will...it's coming to a theatre near you soon enough. The question remains whether we will stop ourselves or will the planet do it for us. How many of us and our children will survive these changes is very much unknown. I think it really will depend on whether the planet sees us as a threat that it will evolve to combat or whether we make them ourselves so as not to continue to be a threat to the environment. We must learn to live symbiotically with the rest of the world to save ourselves. Failure to do so, and soon, will result in a world quite different from the one we have now. Whether we can live at all in this new world is the question.
The world is getting hotter and hotter. But not everywhere. In Ottawa this year it has been one of the coldest in the last twenty years. My pool hasn't gone above 22 degrees Celsius( around 74 F) once. Only 2 days in July where the temp. went above 30 Degrees C. It's all part of our new world. Hotter sometimes someplace, while colder in others. No real way to predict where and when accurately. I actually had someone argue with me that this is all part of a global cycle that we can't do anything about. While the earth does go through these cycles.. they take thousands of years to change, not decades. There is no way to tell what the total effect such a drastic and fast change might be. The result could be anything from an ice age to a new Mars. I would have thought this so obvious that debate on at least this issue could be put aside. There is absolutely no way we are going to make changes so long as people bury there heads in the sand and pretend that we are not responsible for these changes. It's time to take this responsibility and to make the changes that may save our planet and ourselves. Any other thinking than this is simply lunacy( I would say wishful thinking.. but somehow I think this just does not reflect the seriousness of the situation). The balance of the eco-system worldwide has been significantly disrupted. We must either restore this balance or find a new balance or find a new world to live on. There really is no debate anymore. In the seventies, there was much debate among the experts about these points. Very few are arguing about it anymore. Those who still do put all of us at risk by slowing the potential for finding solutions to the problem. Many of these solutions already exist. Fortunately the price of fuel may force us to do what our ignorance prevents us from doing. As the price of gas skyrockets due to diminishing reserves we will be forced to use alternatives. Solar and wind power, hydrogen fuel cells, geo-thermal heating, and disciplined use of available power all can have a dramatic effect on the environment. We must reach the point where we have a net impact of zero on the planet. But before we reach that point, we must first reverse the impact we have already had. Only then can we become a truly sustainable civilization. Until that time comes we will become more and more in decline as the world desperately tries to save itself by becoming more hostile to humans. There are many signs that this is happening. Everything from the climate to shark attacks to the aggressiveness of the animals and insects points to this. And it's going to get worse....much worse. We haven't really felt the impact of new diseases, viruses and toxic stress. But we will...it's coming to a theatre near you soon enough. The question remains whether we will stop ourselves or will the planet do it for us. How many of us and our children will survive these changes is very much unknown. I think it really will depend on whether the planet sees us as a threat that it will evolve to combat or whether we make them ourselves so as not to continue to be a threat to the environment. We must learn to live symbiotically with the rest of the world to save ourselves. Failure to do so, and soon, will result in a world quite different from the one we have now. Whether we can live at all in this new world is the question.
# posted by Wil Smith : 3:26 a.m.
