Here in the Northeast it seems to be raining almost everyday. A quick look at the weather forecast shows rain for the next 5 days. This past winter saw record snow storms follow one after the other.
In the South the Mississippi River is flooding while tornados have caused a great deal of damage and the loss of many lives. While in the Southwest there is a lingering drought.
Across the globe natural disasters seem to be happening more frequently. In 2010/2011 there have been an earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, earthquake in Haiti, Peru, and Chile. There have also been flooding and mudslides in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and (as I mentioned) in and around the Mississippi River.
Scientist around the world have chronicled the melting of the polar regions, the increase in the earth's temperature, and the rising of the oceans. According to a survey by the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Science" (reported in the USAToday, June 22, 2010) "...97 percent of scientific experts agree that climate change is "very likely" caused mainly by human activity." The report is based on questions posed to 1,372 scientists.
Each of these things can be looked at as "Isolated Incidents" with no relationship to one another. Many of us will shake our heads and say "I am glad thats not happening to me", and a great deal of us will fall back into a fitful sleep until the next disaster strikes.
But I think that somewhere in the back of everyone's mind is the realization that something is not quite right. A truth that we can't, or perhaps, don't want to verbalize. But it's crying out to be said. What is it?
What it is...is that all these things are related! Everything is 'cause and effect'. The increased burning of fossil fuels rises into the atmosphere and warms the planet changing the weather patterns. The pollution of the oceans damages aquatic habitats which makes it unable to support sea-life ending with the disappearance of certain species.
According to Sylvia Earle, oceanographer and undersea explorer, "Since the beginning of the 20th century, aquatic and terrestrial species have been reduced to a fraction of their former abundance and entire ecosystems have been consumed for short term use..." (May 15, 2011, Smith College speech).
So what is the solution?
Each of us are called upon to do our share to help save the planet. But the solution can not be just the individual sweater-wearing person shivering in their dimly lit houses using cloth instead of plastic shopping bags. Nor can it be the man or women biking to work everyday to help reduce air-pollution. And it definitely is not the poor and middle class families that are always called upon to make sacrifices that they can little afford.
The solution will involve all of us pressing our governmental representatives to stop the partisan bickering in Washington and acknowledge that we have a problem. Then come up with some concrete action.
The solution needs to include the scientific community researching and developing long and short term ideas. Practical ideas based on increasing the availability of low cost non-polluting energy sources like wind, solar, wave-energy, and geo-thermal would be a great start.
Our government, as well as governments across the globe, will need to stop tip-toeing around the large multinational corporations and impose more stringent regulations to slow down the burning of fossil fuels and stop the carbon emissions that are suffocating the planet.
Schools will need to actively reinforce in their students the importance of a healthy planet and instill an understanding of what an ethical relationship between their future careers and a healthy world should look like.
But most importantly people across the globe must come to understand that the decay and destruction of the earth will ultimately become the decay and destruction of human life on the planet as we know it.
jt
Well said. Get those thoughts out there!
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