Grrrr. I cannot possibly stay away from the soap box another moment! This climate change debate is driving me bananas.
I'm no scientist, so I cannot argue the finer detail of the warming or otherwise of the world. Then again, neither is his lordship Christopher Monckton. What a tosser, thinking he knows better than everyone else. None of us really have a clue about anything in life, but I can say with confidence, the weather is different now than it was ten years ago. It is even more different than it was twenty years ago when I was collecting newspaper articles offering dire warnings of the greenhouse effect. Come to think of it, the weather now matches some of those warnings. I suppose it could be coincidence, but like I said, I'm no climate scientist.
So here's the thing. I don't really know if the way I have lived, and the way you have lived, and the way so many other people have lived is causing exponential warming of the earth. I can't prove with clever graphs or modelling, that the sea will continue to rise. But let's just say we have caused global warming and climate change, and that in a few years the pacific islands will be all but gone. If we get to that point and I have done nothing to try and hold it back, I will be devastated.
On the other hand, if in ten or twenty years we discover climate change was one big
furphy, designed to control the masses, what have I lost? Face in front of those who always believed climate change was a lie? A bit of money perhaps? At least I'll know I did my bit just in case.
I can't help thinking there is another reason we need to change the way we live. Surely we are living beyond our means? We're sucking the life from the earth. So many systems are stressed and crumbling, and the implications are huge. Check out the
current status of world bee populations for a case in point. And
human populations are at risk too. If, perchance, the world was not warming even one tenth of a degree, it would still be worth reining in our consumption for the sake of ecosystems, animals, food production and human health. We have to stop this sucking the life out of our planet. It is madness.
And with that I just took the sting out of Lord Christopher Munckton's argument, because whether the world is warming or not, we need to do something now. Stop the over consuming, start being happy with what we have, value this beautiful planet.
Now I shall step off my soap box and return to reading
a rather interesting book... loving the
natural, homemade cleaning products.
Labels: environment, global warming, grrrr, soap box
