Dealing with climate change instead of preventing it
I’ve spoken out against the term “Global Warming,” many a time in the past. I don’t like it, not because of the term itself, but because historically it’s been heavily pregnant with certain attitudes and assumptions. It’s an ignorant term, not in and of itself, but how the mass media uses it. You can’t say Global Warming without someone thinking you’re talking about human pollution and interference. I’m still far from convinced on what level of impact our brief tenure as an industrial society has had on the planet.
I’m not at all denying that we have had an impact. Certainly we have. Indeed, I think we’ve done some vast and horrible things. I do infact think that we have helped cause, or at least speed, climate change. Is that bad? Well, yes, it likely is, not because of the change itself but because of how we react to it, and how little we understand it.
The problem is we don’t know what we’re doing.
We spend most of our time on this matter arguing about who’s fault it is and how to fix it. It’s quite a problem, because we don’t know how many factors are involved, nor do we know the weight to put on the factors we do know about. I equate our flailing and bickering to the process of gluing together a china teapot that’s been broken… except we’re doing it in a dark room only by touch. I know it’s arrogant of me to make such a judgement on a world community of scientists, but it’s not like I’m wrong on the matter. There’s no consensus on causes, and even less on fixes.
Do we need to “fix” anything?
Recent evidence shows that we’re not alone in this problem. Mars is also warming up, despite the fact they don’t have a bunch of troublesome humans belching out greenhouse gasses. This is currently being attributed to the current solar cycle, and of course that’s pretty obvious. The sun is the main factor that affects absolutely anything in our solar system, so naturally it is one of the first places to look for cause of changes. Of course, it’s not anywhere near the only factor, but it’s good to have a bit of validation on my thoughts that we haven’t fully grasped the problem.
How often do you try to solve a problem without understanding it first? I’m guilty of it from time to time. I will readily admit that if I don’t have a firm grasp of the problem before attempting a fix, I most often fail to solve it. I don’t see how it should be any different on a professional scientific scale.
We’re going about this wrong.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea to reduce emissions. I actually think it’s great. I would love to go Solar, or Wind power. I like being ecologically friendly when I can. I think we’re putting the wrong priority on it. Historically we’ve been terrible at trying to “fix” nature. There are may instances where we’ve had great intentions of helping nature but not seen the big picture and failed utterly. The global climate is far more complex than regional ecosystems, yet we spend a lot of time bickering about it and making sweeping generalizations about the need to fix it, and how.
When you’re sick, and you don’t know what’s wrong what do you do? You treat the symptoms so you can continue getting on about your life as well as possible. You keep trying to figure out what’s wrong, but you don’t let yourself be crippled in the meantime. That’s what we should be primarily focused on at this point. We’re busy making predictions of catastrophe, some of which are in fact likely to come about. We’re busy laying about blame for things that are sometimes no one’s fault, or everyone’s fault. We should instead be acknowledging the change, and working to adjust to it.
Pragmatism is more helpful than being reactionary or sensational
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for minimizing our impact on other species. If I had my way I’d live in a solar house, with an electric car out on a lake surrounded by forest, growing my own vegetables and frolicking with the other woodland creatures. That’s not a likely scenario for me or most other people any time soon. Until that becomes more plausible I’ll be going about my daily life as I was.
In a world where we’re likely to see weather patterns we’re not accustomed to we need to acknowledge their power and unpredictability, while preparing as best we can. If you live where hurricanes hit, for the love of all that’s holy be sure not to be in a flood plain, or below sea level. Don’t live in a trailer or other unsound structure. If you live where there could be tornados, keep a weather radio and know how and when to take cover. If it gets hot, be sure to have water and a way to help cool yourself down should the power go out. If you live where you can be snowed in, keep supplies. There’s too much human tragedy happening due to ignorance and simple arrogance/lack of preparation.
This world has been around much longer than we have, and unless we get our act together it will be here long after we’ve passed. To it, we’re a minor annoyance at best. Thousands, probably millions, of species have come along and gone past in the life of earth, we are no exception. We do not have to be as ignorant, but it seems we often choose to be.
2 Comments
» Leave one of your ownRSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Comment by Fullman — March 6, 2007 @ 1:56 pm
Good stuff, and I agree, it’s just a trend and it’s happening whether we can control it or not… you know what happens when people try to play God.
I dugg this btw, but chances are it won’t go anywhere, just because Kevin Rose won’t agree with you
http://digg.com/environment/Dealing_With_Climate_Change_Instead_of_Preventing_It
Pingback by what is pragmatism — May 17, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
[...] in or out of our control, ‘pragmatism is more helpful than being reactionary or sensational’.http://www.makesitgood.net/2007/03/06/dealing-with-climate-change-instead-of-preventing-it/RealClearPolitics - Articles - Electoral Pragmatism ReconsideredIn my column last week, I argued for [...]