Earth-Save

I do believe we are getting warmer.  I’ve been keeping an almanac since 2000, and many natural events — such as the arrival of hummingbirds, bluebirds, deerflies, mayflowers, forsythia, etc. — are occurring at least a week earlier in the spring now than just a decade before.  Of course, like global temperature readings over the past century, my information is not scientifically precise.  But I don’t need lab measurements to confirm what I’m witnessing with my own eyes.  And the data from the extremes of our Earth such as towns in Alaska that are collapsing in melting permafrost is irrefutable.  The world is indeed heating up.

But it’s debatable whether this is just a normal cyclic event or an irreversible trend.  In spite of all the scientific evidence, there’s no irrefutable proof at this point, and many skeptics remain.  And it’s also debatable how much impact humans have.  It’s ridiculous to think that humans have no effect on our environment.  But it’s unclear whether our pollution is the primary cause of the recent warming or just one of many contributing factors.  Again, there is currently no way to know for sure with our limited data, scientific knowledge and computational power.

That said, we are humans who have been blessed with incredible pattern recognition capabilities and intuition.  Like the frog sitting in the slowly boiling pot of water, we notice it’s getting warmer and the bubbles are starting to form.  We have no conclusive proof that it’s warmer or whether it will continue, but it sure seems like it is.  So do we just sit and do nothing and wait until we boil to death?  Or do we get smart about our future and jump out of the pot?  (Note that the “boiling frog” theory itself appears to be false — who can you believe these days about anything?)

Hopefully as smart humans we will recognize that our endless pollution and reliance on fossil fuels is wrong on so many levels — environment, economy, security, geopolitics, health.  It’s essential that we start cleaning up our act and looking for a better way to fuel our future.  The one major downside to the global warming debate is it has enough ambiguity and uncertainty that skeptics can use it as an excuse inject FUD, do nothing and keep business as usual.  And that’s the real climate catastrophe.