Most
of the U.S. is aware of climate change but 90% think - 1) it doesn't
apply to them, or 2) they can't do anything about it, or 3) it's a bunch
of political bullshit (aka they're in denial). All of those viewpoints
are grievously in error.
If we understand that WE are part of a materially finite system of life AND, at the same time, a human created system of social and material process that has foundational requirements (capitalism - endless growth, endless consumption, endless waste with no impact) that cannot be satisfied in a materially finite system, and we have pushed out to the limits of that materially finite system, then we realize we must make some choices. Failure/refusal to make a choice is a de facto choice in the negative, so... If we accept the current scientific understandings in climate, weather, ecology (including habitat for all of life on Earth), human habitat specifically, agroecology, paleo-climate, and more, then there are basic, systemic principles that apply to all of that life -
1) Climate and weather are the seasonal and real-time manifestations of Earth's constant energy balancing act - and more energy is entering and being retained by the system... unbalanced. As a result we WILL be facing and dealing with ever more violent and sudden energy balancing activities as planetary feedback systems try to balance increasingly out of balance energy profiles globally. Laws of physics applied on the global scale.
2) All living things on Earth have varying "zones" of conditions within which their life is possible - at the center of which their life is "ideal". Those zones are defined by temperature, moisture availability, nutrient availability, and shelter conditions (conditions which protect the life form from extremes of habitat condition and allow the life form to "rest"). We could ( and do) call this the "Goldilocks Zone" - where conditions are "just right".
3) Given that all life forms have a Goldilocks Zone, not all Goldilocks Zones are the same. If living conditions in a given location change so as to exceed the Goldilocks Zone limits, the affected organism suffers what is called a "loss of habitat". That organism must either move to new effective habitat, adapt to the current changed habitat, or die. A form of adaptation would include being protected by another organism.
4) Due in part to human activities over the last 100-200 years conditions for all of life on Earth are now changing rapidly and exceeding the Goldilocks Zone of many species alive today. Some species are moving, some are attempting to adapt, many are dying. The changes are accelerating and/or are moving much faster than predicted/anticipated. As a result the changes are too fast for many species to adapt, which means that they must either move, be protected, or die.
Because we are in an increasing exponential curve regarding the level and scope of life-threatening impact now occurring, the choices that we make in the next 5 years in relation to this basic and foundational knowledge of the systemic impact of our ecologically unguided and self-centered choices and actions over the previous two centuries, will affect all life on Earth immediately and the ability of Earth to continue to sustain carbon-based life as we know it for the next 100,000 years... and YES, this does include human life.
The actions needed are wrenching and quite realistically civilization ending. A complete cessation of all industrial capitalist activities. A complete reconsideration of how and what living on a planet with finite resources means for humanity and the life it is utterly dependent upon for it's sustenance. A complete reorientation of the human supporting food system. The magnitude of change rests on the magnitude of overall impact to carbon based life's ability to thrive on Earth at all. At best the saving grace for humanity may be aboriginal cultures that haven't entirely lost their sense of who they are and where they came from, and worst case, the extremophiles of Earth's Tree of Life, such as the amazing array of life found around highly toxic and anoxic deep sea high-heat thermal vents along volcanic fissures may be the only things that make it through
Welcome to what may well be the end of the shortest epoch in global history - the Anthropocene!
If we understand that WE are part of a materially finite system of life AND, at the same time, a human created system of social and material process that has foundational requirements (capitalism - endless growth, endless consumption, endless waste with no impact) that cannot be satisfied in a materially finite system, and we have pushed out to the limits of that materially finite system, then we realize we must make some choices. Failure/refusal to make a choice is a de facto choice in the negative, so... If we accept the current scientific understandings in climate, weather, ecology (including habitat for all of life on Earth), human habitat specifically, agroecology, paleo-climate, and more, then there are basic, systemic principles that apply to all of that life -
1) Climate and weather are the seasonal and real-time manifestations of Earth's constant energy balancing act - and more energy is entering and being retained by the system... unbalanced. As a result we WILL be facing and dealing with ever more violent and sudden energy balancing activities as planetary feedback systems try to balance increasingly out of balance energy profiles globally. Laws of physics applied on the global scale.
2) All living things on Earth have varying "zones" of conditions within which their life is possible - at the center of which their life is "ideal". Those zones are defined by temperature, moisture availability, nutrient availability, and shelter conditions (conditions which protect the life form from extremes of habitat condition and allow the life form to "rest"). We could ( and do) call this the "Goldilocks Zone" - where conditions are "just right".
3) Given that all life forms have a Goldilocks Zone, not all Goldilocks Zones are the same. If living conditions in a given location change so as to exceed the Goldilocks Zone limits, the affected organism suffers what is called a "loss of habitat". That organism must either move to new effective habitat, adapt to the current changed habitat, or die. A form of adaptation would include being protected by another organism.
4) Due in part to human activities over the last 100-200 years conditions for all of life on Earth are now changing rapidly and exceeding the Goldilocks Zone of many species alive today. Some species are moving, some are attempting to adapt, many are dying. The changes are accelerating and/or are moving much faster than predicted/anticipated. As a result the changes are too fast for many species to adapt, which means that they must either move, be protected, or die.
Because we are in an increasing exponential curve regarding the level and scope of life-threatening impact now occurring, the choices that we make in the next 5 years in relation to this basic and foundational knowledge of the systemic impact of our ecologically unguided and self-centered choices and actions over the previous two centuries, will affect all life on Earth immediately and the ability of Earth to continue to sustain carbon-based life as we know it for the next 100,000 years... and YES, this does include human life.
The actions needed are wrenching and quite realistically civilization ending. A complete cessation of all industrial capitalist activities. A complete reconsideration of how and what living on a planet with finite resources means for humanity and the life it is utterly dependent upon for it's sustenance. A complete reorientation of the human supporting food system. The magnitude of change rests on the magnitude of overall impact to carbon based life's ability to thrive on Earth at all. At best the saving grace for humanity may be aboriginal cultures that haven't entirely lost their sense of who they are and where they came from, and worst case, the extremophiles of Earth's Tree of Life, such as the amazing array of life found around highly toxic and anoxic deep sea high-heat thermal vents along volcanic fissures may be the only things that make it through
Welcome to what may well be the end of the shortest epoch in global history - the Anthropocene!
