Global Warming ... So What?

"...only we humans make waste that nature can't digest." 

Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation

Well, I got over my writer's block today thanks to a post on another blog I just finished reading. I was just going to leave a short little comment, but it turned into a full tangent, and as Chris Brogan (social media man extraordinaire) once advised:  ...if you've made a good comment, use it as a blog post! (Or something along those lines.)


So now I follow the advice of Brogan and do exactly that.


Ahem. Here I go:


I am a student of earth sciences... it was my major and I have had a lifelong fascination with the earth and all its processes. I do believe firmly that the earth's climates naturally and cyclically shift - obvious, as Earth has had  several ice ages with periods of warming in between.


However, I do believe that man, as a one of the few beings capable of acting upon its environment and not necessarily being acted upon, CAN and does have an effect on the environment and can essentially intensify/speed up a shift in the changing climate. On the flip side, mankind may also be able slow down the process to a degree with human ingenuity. 


We can not deny that certain actions that make the human race comfortable are also detrimental to the environment. A universal law states that every action has an effect. If we are being "unwise" stewards in taking care of the earth, we should expect that likewise there will be a reaction in kind. We should expect to see a degree of degradation in the quality of life on this planet. We can not naively think that we can go about happy-go-lucky with no thought for anything but our own comfort as a species and not reap any repercussions.


Luckily, the earth has been a robust planet, bouncing back or adapting from many of our actions. However, as the human race continues to grow and use more resources, we have started to see some failings in the environmental systems: lakes that have been unable to support its fish; forest systems that have become inundated with exotic (introduced) species; displaced species; extinction. Why is it not possible that our pollution may also be intensifying an already naturally occurring cycle of global warming? The result may have been subtle in natural circumstances (generally speaking, that's how nature works- GENERALLY ;) but with our actions involved, we may be witnessing much more drastic results than would have naturally occurred.

On the flip side, there has been a greater awareness brought to us on the importance of the environment. This has awareness has spurred a reaction of people doing things such as using reusable shopping bags (hopefully slowing the growth of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch- which CAN'T be good for anything living there), driving less (we in Salt Lake City see the effects of too many vehicles on the road every day since we have some of the worst air in the country during the winter), walking/biking more (hey, that's a healthy way to help our nation's obesity problem! ;), using solar panels and better construction tactics such as LEED certified buildings to keep energy use down (and I'd much rather see solar panels than oil drills in my landscape; way less ugly in my opinion- and being a native Floridian, we don't need more oil in the ocean!), and the restoration of many habitats, especially wetlands which are crucial to the longevity of our planet's species (and hey, it looks nice, too).


If the idea of human-caused global warming is what it took to make people realize that we are harming our earth and co-habitants on this earth- which we were and still are doing - and start changing their lifestyle, then I ask what harm is there in that? More biodiversity? Cleaner air? Healthier bodies? Less sickness and disease? All this will come in time with living more respectfully with our surroundings. However, even if there is no human-caused (or even influenced) global warming and we continue with our past actions we have all the opposites - less biodiversity, polluted air, obesity-caused disease, sickness.


I'd rather an "imagined" global warming scare wake us up than business as usual and continued unwise stewardship of my home. Earth is all we've got.