I visited Glacier National Park when I was 11 yrs. old. At that time most of the glaciers there were "in retreat", but back then it was thought to be just a down swing in their natural cycle. That down swing has steady increased during the past 40+ yrs. to the point that many of the glaciers I saw back then are now gone, and the few remaining may be gone as well within the next 10 yrs.
Do I think global warming is real? Of course I do. According to scientists from many different disciplines, average worldwide temperatures have risen much faster in the last 60 yrs. than they did at any time previously within the last 2000 years. Do I think this will cause climate change? Most definitely… How can it not? But that change in climate will affect various areas of the planet differently. Some places will get warmer, some will get cooler. Some places will get dryer, some will get wetter. But I think it's obvious that things will change. And to that regard I have mixed feelings, which I will try to explain.
Personally, I don't want to see the glaciers and their associated flora and fauna disappear. I don't want to see deserts form in areas that have always been green for at least a part of the year. I don't want to see fires decimate dried out old growth forests where I have always camped and hunted. I want things to stay the way they are, because honestly, I don't like change… It's inconvenient.
But unfortunately, change is inevitable. The earth is in a constant state of change and has been since the very beginning. It's the only reason that we, as a species, even exist.
The first living things on this planet were mostly obligate anaerobic bacteria. They thrived in an environment of very little to no oxygen for many millions of years. Then cyanobacteria arose and in addition to adding the color green to the landscape they also added vast amounts of oxygen to the atmosphere. Unfortunately oxygen is toxic to most of those earliest forms of anaerobic bacteria, and they suffered a mass die-off. This was the first time that one life form modified the global environment to the significant detriment of another life form. Cyanobacteria eventually developed chloroplasts and because of those chloroplasts aquatic and terrestrial green plants appeared and with them the atmospheric level of oxygen increased further. With all the new available oxygen, organisms developed that could thrive using oxygen to turn consumable nutrients into energy and body structures. These were the very earliest protozoans. And from those protozoans came the earliest members of the "Animalia Kingdom", at first only in the seas, but later in fresh waters and eventually on the terra firma. One of those primitive emergent "animal" life forms is our earliest ancestor.
During the Paleozoic Era, and especially during it's "carboniferous period", most of the land areas of the planet were a vast hot, humid, and incredibly dense rain forest with plants growing on top of the dead and decaying layers of earlier plants. Because of this, the atmosphere was so heavily oxygenated that huge insects, myriapods, and arachnids were not only possible, but common. The diversity of animal life in the ocean was diverse and thriving as well. But for some reason the climate drastically cooled and dried out and the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse happened. Another wide spread mass die-off… One that we take advantage of today with our almost total reliance on fossil fuels (hydrocarbons) that were formed from this vast biomass of decaying plant and animal matter. Certainly another time that drastic climate change worked to our (albeit much later) benefit.
Without going on ad infinitum about the history of life on this planet I will say this: Many things can cause dramatic climate change; wide spread volcanism, continental drift, increases or decreases in solar activity, wide spread fire events, cosmic impacts, variations in the earths tilt and its orbit around the sun, and variations in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, the last of which can be caused by life itself. All of these we consider natural phenomenon, and all of which eventually resulted in a more diversified and thriving biosphere.
Human activity is at least partially responsible for the current "global warming" condition… That I do believe. But what I have trouble wrapping my head around is the belief that, in the grander scheme of things, it is (in anyway at all) "unnatural"…
Unless you believe that the human species is some sort of alien interloper on this planet, then we too are very much a part of nature. That being said, it stands to reason that all of our actions and their consequences are, in fact, the results of our natural evolution. We climbed out of trees, started walking upright, developed language, invented tools, used tools to create civilizations, harnessed the power of fire, and started consuming burnable fuel sources, including fossil fuels, to keep ourselves warm and to power our subsequent inventions. But just like those earliest forms of cyanobacteria, our evolution is having an undesirable effect on many species, including ourselves… Undesirable, that is, if you are like me and are a fan of the current state of homeostasis.
But ultimately, climate change and the associated environmental impacts are inevitable. When major environmental changes occur for whatever reason, organisms can do one of four things; migrate to an area less affected, stay put and adapt as best they can, evolve in a way that takes advantage of the change, or perish.
Sadly, I see very few signs, now or in the near future, that humanity is willing to modify its collective way of life in a fashion that will, at least for the time being, preserve the currently perceived "natural environment". In that case, we need to be willing to accept and adapt to the eventual consequences of significant global changes.
I'm sure in the long term we will make it through this dilemma because we will eventually evolve our thinking, our behaviors, and probably even our physiology. And if our past biological history is any indication, we will morph into a new and improved version of our species…"Homo Sapiens 2.0, if you will… Ultimately becoming a wiser and more symbiotic natural citizen of our planet's biosphere.
The most dire consequences often result in the most profound lessons. Perhaps humanity needs to be taught a very profound lesson?
Although the lyrics of this song have nothing what so ever to do with this topic, I find them ironically very relevant to this discussion:
You can't always get what you want.
You can't always get what you want.
But if you try sometimes you just might find...
You get what you need.
… Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
