Climate Change and You…and Me and the Planet
I rarely step away from posting about writing—this being my
author blog and all—but lately there has been a perfect storm of instances that
has really made me think about our planet. Intriguing articles about fossil
finds, which lead me to look up details about that period or that geographic
area. Swarms of earthquakes all up and down the west coast, which spurs me to
research volcanic activity through the ages. Articles on how fracking is a
national security threat. All of these things make me think! It’s scary – me
thinking, that is. And I can’t help myself. Sometimes I have to share my
thoughts with you good people. It’s like if I ‘say it aloud’ I can get on to
new, less consuming thoughts. Right now my mind won’t leave the immense power
of our planet vs. the miniscule presence that is humanity.
Recently they found an enormous shark fossil in Texas. The
prehistoric mega-shark swam around in a sea that covered what is now Texas and
split the U.S and Canada into two separate landmasses. Imagine that sea. It was
shallow as far as seas are concerned, originally created by shifting plates. It
eventually retreated because of a continual uplift of sandstone and lagoons,
leaving sharks like the one they recently discovered stranded on land to be
fossilized, or maybe pushing their already fossilized selves up out of the
water. Did you know sharks are so old, they pre-date trees? The first tree, a
type that is long extinct, was part of a lush woodland that used to fill what
is now the Sahara desert. Which, by the way, became an arid desert due to the
monsoons shifting southward (not due to
pollution or deforestation.) I’ve also
recently read that the Yellowstone super volcano has a super eruption every
600,000 to 700,000 million years (last one was 640,000 million years ago) and
scientists think it has been super-erupting—eruptions that impact the world’s
weather and tilt of the earth, etc—for 16 million years.
There are a lot of stories like this.
These stories, especially stories about things that happened
before humans arrived on the scene, are the reason why cries to “Save the
Planet” don’t resonate with me. The planet doesn’t actually care that we are
here. Not anymore than it cared about the mega-shark, the dinosaurs, or that
first tree. It has survived without us before, it will likely survive without
us again.
What we need to do is “Save Humanity.” When we pollute the
skies until we have to wear surgical masks to walk outside, we aren’t making a
lasting affect on the planet that it can’t fix or adapt to on its own. We are
impacting the quality of life for our fellow man. When we kill off the polar
bears or create earthquakes by fracking, the world will simply continue on.
Eventually it will shake us off like a dog after a bath.
I’m not disputing that we have a direct impact on our planet
with our excessiveness and desire for convenience, I’m just sharing my own,
admittedly novice opinion that we are like the flea biting the dog’s skin.
Irritating, but nothing a good purge won’t fix. I mean—come on—16 million years
of weather altering super-eruptions versus 2.5 million years of humanity. Heck,
even the dinosaurs had 165 million years here before the earth abandoned them.
Where’s the loyalty there? I doubt anyone out there is arrogant enough to think
the planet finds us more important than the dinosaurs. However, we believe we
are with our critical thinking and apposable thumbs. But do we look out for one
another? No. We continually bite into the skin of the dog by building
pollution-spewing factories and cutting down rain forests. Ordering brand new
Halloween costumes online instead of piecing one together from the Goodwill.
Buying a brand new car every few years instead of a lightly used one when we
actually need it.
To the earth, humans are an irritating blip in its long,
long history. We are a case of chicken pox. Maybe even only a 24 hour flu.
But not to each other. Our fellow humans—your friends, your
family, your co-workers, your customers, your online acquaintances, your
favorite clerk at the grocery store, the man behind the desk at the post
office, the faceless person across from you and the four-way stop, the girl
(now woman) you used to be best friends with in third grade who you no longer
know, but who had a lasting impact on you…all the people everywhere are your
entire reason for being. In some small miniscule way you are accountable to
each of us for the actions you take that impact this planet. The planet doesn’t
care. But I do. So does your mom.
Wow! You've done a lot of research. What you're saying is sad but true. Myself, I take a lot for granted. Like our water supplies. We've always had plenty of water, as far as I know. Our recent 5 year drought proved how easily we can run out of water. Now, we're very conservative minded, even though our water supply has been replenished. Next time, it might not be, so the city governments are still making rules of how much water we can use. Our other resources may be in danger too. I haven't read about them, but it's logical. My son planted a garden the past year, and the veggies were yummy. He's plowed and is getting ready for this coming spring. We've learned to catch rain water off the roof to water the garden and for other uses. Everything you said is important. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteI just feel like if we put a human face on the problem, instead of the world, it might feel more doable for each of us. Thanks for stopping in, Beverly. Glad your water supply has been replenished. Hopefully the west coast will get that this winter due to El Nino.
DeleteHi Paula - I read your blog on this because it sounded like you might have a balanced view of climate change, and I think you do. We're not harming the earth, it'll take care of itself, we are harming people with our waste and excess. I like your perspective of caring about and taking care of people first.
ReplyDeleteI saw a typo though where an apostrophe is incorrectly used, I'm sure you'd want to fix it: It's in the sentence - "we aren’t making a lasting affect on the planet that it can’t fix or adapt to on it’s own."
Thanks for the heads up on the typo and for stopping in to read.
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