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Buckle Up! The Arctic’s Sizzling
Robert Hunziker
June 17, 2022: The Arctic is turning into a dream come true for doomsayers. It’s heating way too fast! Nostradamus is dancing in the street.
Record-smashing Arctic temperatures may brighten the outlook for those who thrive, actually enjoy, disaster scenarios, but the great majority of people only get off on disasters in a movie theater, not in the wide open spaces at the top of the world. Even Hollywood itself could never possibly capture the moment, the drama, the heightened level of deep concern of flabbergasted scientists, as temperatures in the Arctic skyrocket.
What’s happening?
Indisputably, it’s all about cars, planes, trains, cows, heavy industry, and electric power plants emitting tons of CO2 into the upper atmosphere where it blankets heat. In that regard, there are limits to what works and what doesn’t for nature’s climate system to continue functioning so that humans can live and breathe and survive. Global warming anomalous temperatures, which are beyond the norm of thousands of years, just don’t cut it. It’s at the biggest disruption level in human history, and it’s downright ugly and outright scary.
New studies have discovered: “Extraordinary global heating in the Arctic that’s seven (7) times faster than the global average” in the North Barents Sea region. This is awful news. Scientists are alarmed, viewing it as an early warning sign of what’s in store for the rest of the Far North, and ultimately the planet as a whole. Seven times faster is insane.
Shockingly, average annual temperatures have logged +2.7C per decade and as high as +4C in autumn months. That’s the fastest rate of heat on Earth. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change >2C spells big trouble.
Scientists have responded with adjectives like weird, simply shocking, crazy, chilling while expressing serious concern about a “signal of more abrupt climate breakdown.” Yes, climate breakdown, which unfortunately precedes societal collapse.
According to the prescience of William Ophuls: “Civilization is effectively hardwired for self-destruction… Insuperable biophysical limits combine with innate human fallibility to precipitate eventual collapse.” (William Ophuls, Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail, 2012)
As for the horrific Arctic discovery: “We expected to see strong warming, but not on the scale we found,” according to Ketil Isaksen, senior researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute: “We were all surprised. From what we know from all other observation points on the globe, these are the highest warming rates we have observed so far.” (Source: Damian Carrington, Environmental Editor, “New Data Reveals Extraordinary Global Heating in the Arctic”, The Guardian, June 15, 2022.)
This is one more example of climate change ahead of schedule. According to Dr. Ruth Mottram, Danish Meteorological Institute: “This study shows that even the best possible models have been underestimating the rate of warming in the Barents Sea.” (Ibid.)
Of more than passing significance, this is the first public release of “extraordinary high-quality” surface air temperature measurements from 1981 to 2020 demonstrating 5-to-7 times global warming averages, which is off the charts problematic.
According to Ketil Isaksen, PhD: “It’s off the scale.” Regrettably, it represents a “leading signal of global warming.” (Source: Ketil Isaksen, et al, “Exceptional Warming Over the Barents Area”, Scientific Reports 12, Article No. 9371, June 15, 2022).
The Isaksen study focused on three periods, covering 40, 30, and 20 years beginning from 1981, 1991, 2001 and all ending in 2020. The highest readings “were up to twice as high than hitherto known in this region from reference station series in the western and southern part… we showed that the warming has been strongly linked, both in space and time, to (1) the large reduction of sea ice and (2) increased SST (sea surface temperature)”. (Ibid.)
The Arctic sets the tone for the rest of the world, which is a horrifying thought based upon this new data. Meanwhile, down south the Doomsday Glacier set another scary record.
Off the charts temperatures in the Arctic are only one-half of the horrific news: “Antarctica’s so-called Doomsday Glacier (Thwaites) is losing ice at its fastest rate in 5,500 years, raising concerns about the ice sheet’s future and the possibility of catastrophic sea level rise caused by the frozen continent’s melting ice.” (Source: “Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is Hemorrhaging Ice Faster Than in the Past 5,500 Years”, LiveScience, June 15, 2022)
The finding comes from a study of prehistoric sea-deposits found on the shores surrounding Thwaites glacier and Pine Island glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet: “Antarctica’s glacial melt is advancing faster than ever before in recorded history.” (Source: Scott Braddock, “Relative Sea-Level Data Preclude Major Late Holocene Ice-Mass Change in Pine Island Bay”, Nature Geoscience, June 9, 2022)
Alas. with both poles setting new records, the evidence mounts that years of warnings from scientists have been right on target, 100% correct while the consequences have been much, much faster than the models expected.
As such, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to foresee impending disaster brewing on the horizon, especially with current rates of CO2 levels and meaningfully because of grim news: “China is Building More Than Half of the World’s New Coal Power Plants”, NewScientist, April 26, 2022: “Some 176 gigawatts of coal capacity was under construction in 2021, and more than half of that was being built in China.” [176 gigawatts equal enough power for one hundred twenty-three million (123,000,000) homes.]
The China/India news defines human insanity and unbelievable stupidity that’s responsible for repeated failure of climate mitigation efforts. This story is getting very old, way too late, in a perilous climate change cycle. Is it suicidal?
As both China and India ramp up new coal power plants, it’s also a direct assault on their own ports: Port of Shanghai, Port of Shenzhen, Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Guangzhou, Port of Hong Kong, Port of Qingdao, Port of Tianjin, Port of Daliam, Kkandia Port, Mumbai Port, Chennai Port, Port Blair Port, Kolkata Port, Tuticorin Port, Cochin Port, and Ennore Port.
A Possible Solution: Convert the US defense budget to a worldwide renewables build-out. Otherwise, at current rates of change, there won’t be much to defend anyhow.
(Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist. Courtesy: CounterPunch.)
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Greenland Ice Sheet Is Losing Ice Faster Than Forecast and Now Irreversibly Committed to At Least 10 Inches of Sea Level Rise
Alun Hubbard
August 29, 2022: I’m standing at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, mesmerized by a mind-blowing scene of natural destruction. A milewide section of glacier front has fractured and is collapsing into the ocean, calving an immense iceberg.
Seracs, giant columns of ice the height of three-story houses, are being tossed around like dice. And the previously submerged portion of this immense block of glacier ice just breached the ocean—a frothing maelstrom flinging ice cubes of several tons high into the air. The resulting tsunami inundates all in its path as it radiates from the glacier’s calving front.
Fortunately, I’m watching from a clifftop a couple of miles away. But even here, I can feel the seismic shocks through the ground.
Despite the spectacle, I’m keenly aware that this spells yet more unwelcome news for the world’s low-lying coastlines.
As a field glaciologist, I’ve worked on ice sheets for more than 30 years. In that time, I have witnessed some gobsmacking changes. The past few years in particular have been unnerving for the sheer rate and magnitude of change underway. My revered textbooks taught me that ice sheets respond over millennial time scales, but that’s not what we’re seeing today.
A study published Aug. 29, 2022, demonstrates—for the first time—that Greenland’s ice sheet is now so out of balance with prevailing Arctic climate that it no longer can sustain its current size. It is irreversibly committed to retreat by at least 59,000 square kilometers (22,780 square miles), an area considerably larger than Denmark, Greenland’s protectorate state.
Even if all the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming ceased today, we find that Greenland’s ice loss under current temperatures will raise global sea level by at least 10.8 inches (27.4 centimeters). That’s more than current models forecast, and it’s a highly conservative estimate. If every year were like 2012, when Greenland experienced a heat wave, that irreversible commitment to sea level rise would triple. That’s an ominous portent given that these are climate conditions we have already seen, not a hypothetical future scenario.
Our study takes a completely new approach—it is based on observations and glaciological theory rather than sophisticated numerical models. The current generation of coupled climate and ice sheet models used to forecast future sea level rise fail to capture the emerging processes that we see amplifying Greenland’s ice loss.
How Greenland got to this point
The Greenland ice sheet is a massive, frozen reservoir that resembles an inverted pudding bowl. The ice is in constant flux, flowing from the interior—where it is over 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) thick, cold and snowy—to its edges, where the ice melts or calves bergs.
In all, the ice sheet locks up enough fresh water to raise global sea level by 24 feet (7.4 meters).
Greenland’s terrestrial ice has existed for about 2.6 million years and has expanded and contracted with two dozen or so “ice age” cycles lasting 70,000 or 100,000 years, punctuated by around 10,000-year warm interglacials. Each glacial is driven by shifts in Earth’s orbit that modulate how much solar radiation reaches the Earth’s surface. These variations are then reinforced by snow reflectivity, or albedo; atmospheric greenhouse gases; and ocean circulation that redistributes that heat around the planet.
We are currently enjoying an interglacial period—the Holocene. For the past 6,000 years Greenland, like the rest of the planet, has benefited from a mild and stable climate with an ice sheet in equilibrium—until recently. Since 1990, as the atmosphere and ocean have warmed under rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions, Greenland’s mass balance has gone into the red. Ice losses due to enhanced melt, rain, ice flow and calving now far exceed the net gain from snow accumulation.
What does the future hold?
The critical questions are, how fast is Greenland losing its ice, and what does it mean for future sea level rise?
Greenland’s ice loss has been contributing about 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) per year to global sea level rise over the past decade.
This net loss is split between surface melt and dynamic processes that accelerate outlet glacier flow and are greatly exacerbated by atmospheric and oceanic warming, respectively. Though complex in its manifestation, the concept is simple: Ice sheets don’t like warm weather or baths, and the heat is on.
What the future will bring is trickier to answer.
The models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict a sea level rise contribution from Greenland of around 4 inches (10 centimeters) by 2100, with a worst-case scenario of 6 inches (15 centimeters).
But that prediction is at odds with what field scientists are witnessing from the ice sheet itself.
According to our findings, Greenland will lose at least 3.3% of its ice, over 100 trillion metric tons. This loss is already committed—ice that must melt and calve icebergs to reestablish Greenland’s balance with prevailing climate.
We’re observing many emerging processes that the models don’t account for that increase the ice sheet’s vulnerability. For example:
- Increased rain is accelerating surface melt and ice flow.
- Large tracts of the ice surface are undergoing bio-albedo darkening, which accelerates surface melt, as well as the impact of snow melting and refreezing at the surface. These darker surfaces absorb more solar radiation, driving yet more melt.
- Warm, subtropical-originating ocean currents are intruding into Greenland’s fjords and rapidly eroding outlet glaciers, undercutting and destabilizing their calving fronts.
- Supraglacial lakes and river networks are draining into fractures and moulins, bringing with them vast quantities of latent heat. This “cryo-hydraulic warming” within and at the base of the ice sheet softens and thaws the bed, thereby accelerating interior ice flow down to the margins.
The issue with models
Part of the problem is that the models used for forecasting are mathematical abstractions that include only processes that are fully understood, quantifiable and deemed important.
Models reduce reality to a set of equations that are solved repeatedly on banks of very fast computers. Anyone into cutting-edge engineering—including me—knows the intrinsic value of models for experimentation and testing of ideas. But they are no substitute for reality and observation. It is apparent that current model forecasts of global sea level rise underestimate its actual threat over the 21st century. Developers are making constant improvements, but it’s tricky, and there’s a dawning realization that the complex models used for long-term sea level forecasting are not fit for purpose.
There are also “unknown unknowns”—those processes and feedbacks that we don’t yet realize and that models can never anticipate. They can be understood only by direct observations and literally drilling into the ice.
That’s why, rather than using models, we base our study on proven glaciological theory constrained by two decades of actual measurements from weather stations, satellites and ice geophysics.
It’s not too late
It’s an understatement that the societal stakes are high, and the risk is tragically real going forward. The consequences of catastrophic coastal flooding as sea level rises are still unimaginable to the majority of the billion or so people who live in low-lying coastal zones of the planet.
Personally, I remain hopeful that we can get on track. I don’t believe we’ve passed any doom-laden tipping point that irreversibly floods the planet’s coastlines. Of what I understand of the ice sheet and the insight our new study brings, it’s not too late to act.
But fossil fuels and emissions must be curtailed now, because time is short and the water rises—faster than forecast.
(Alun Hubbard Professor of Glaciology, Arctic Five Chair, University of Tromsø. Courtesy: The Conversation. The Conversation is an Australia-based nonprofit, independent global news organization dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good.)
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‘Dangerous Heat Waves’ to be More Frequent and More Sustained in Near Future
Sandipan Talukdar
31 Aug 2022: For the past few years, summers have appeared to reach new record-breaking levels in many parts of the world. This year also, what is considered ‘extreme heat’ has scorched wide areas of the northern hemisphere. Large parts of Europe including the United Kingdom (UK) witnessed extreme heat levels. Similarly, on the other side of the globe, China is reeling under dangerous drought and unusual heat and India is seeing heat waves even during spring. The dangerous heat waves did not even spare places like Siberia and Canada. Worryingly, this trend is not going to recede, in fact, it is going to get worse.
The study published in Nature journal on the 25th of August, says that in the decades to come, dangerous heat waves will hit much of the world more frequently, at least thrice more often than it is today.
The study says that with rising global temperatures, the tropical regions including India are likely to face extreme heat conditions almost daily by the end of this century. Even if the world reduces greenhouse emissions, this condition is likely to prevail, the study says.
On the other hand, the mid-latitude countries including the United States of America (USA) will not be spared by the dangerous heat waves. In this region, the number of hot days with high temperature and humidity, which is enough for exhaustion is likely to get doubled by the middle of this century, say by the year 2050. This trend will continue to rise, the study suggests. Temperatures of around 39 degrees Celsius or higher have been projected to occur 20 to 50 times a year by the middle of this century. Notably, this temperature range is occurring in these regions occasionally now. More so, the study authors say that the brutal heat and humidity combo can linger for the entire summer in places of the U.S.
The researchers of the study considered population growth, patterns of economic development and energy choices and coupled those with climate models to project how the heat and humidity combination will change with time.
The study projects an extremely dangerous situation for India. It suggests that a heat index where the temperature rises to over 50 degrees Celsius, which is the ‘extremely dangerous’ level will scorch the tropical belt that includes India for 1 to 4 weeks in a year by the end of the century. This extremely dangerous situation which occurs very rarely now will become common.
Commenting on the imminent danger of climate crisis, the first author of the study Lucas Zepetello of Harvard University said in a statement,
“so that’s kind of the scary thing about this. That’s something where potentially billions of people are going to be exposed to extremely dangerous levels of heat very regularly. So something that’s gone from virtually never happening before will go to something that is happening every year.”
Lucas and others in the team of researchers used around 1000 computer simulations to study the probabilities of two levels of high heat—one is a heat index where the temperature rises to 39.4 degrees Celsius and the other one where the temperature is around 51 degrees Celsius. They calculated these heat indices for the years 2050 and 2100 with a comparison of how often these heat indices occurred each year across the world between 1979 and 1998.
The researchers found that there was a three to ten-fold increase in the 39.4 degrees Celsius heat index in the mid-latitude regions. They found this scenario of heat even when global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius increase than the pre-industrial level.
“Sadly, the horrific predictions shown in this study are credible. The past two summers have provided a window into our steamy future, with lethal heat waves in Europe, China, northwestern North America, India, the south-central U.S., the U.K., central Siberia, and even New England. Already hot places will become uninhabitable as heat indices exceed dangerous thresholds, affecting humans and ecosystems alike. Areas, where extreme heat is now rare, will also suffer increasingly, as infrastructure and living things are ill-adapted to the crushing heat,” commented Jennifer Francis in a statement to Washington Post. Francis is a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
(Courtesy: NewsClick.)
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Drying Planet: Drought Has Become a Truly Planetary Disaster in 2022
Richard Mahapatra
26 August 2022: Arguably, this is the first time that drought as a disaster has become planetary. In Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, nearly 300 million people are in the grip of drought.
East Africa is reeling under its worst drought in four decades; nearly half of the US is dry; and countries like France and Portugal are enduring the worst drought on record.
In India, states like Odisha, Jharkhand and those in the North East are already under drought-like conditions, notwithstanding the severe floods that hit these areas in August.
Currently, no matter where one is, he or she will be hit by the spectre of drought with unusual intensity. Drought is a disaster that one can see coming. It gives enough warning to a country to prepare.
The failure of seasonal rain, long dry spells and gradual drying up of moisture in land with effects on crops are the usual stages that lead up to a drought emergency. In the current spell too, signs of severe drought were visible for many countries since the start of last year.
But this spell is marked by its sweep and severity and the utter failure of existing drought management regimes to foresee and address it. This spell also reveals the worst facet of the changing climate as it affects two fundamental resources: land and water.
It has hit both the poor and rich in developed and developing countries, although the intensity of impact is more for the poor. Since 2000, several UN agencies point out, the frequency and duration of droughts have increased by nearly 33 per cent.
Every fifth citizen in the world faces water stress as an impact of dry spells and frequent droughts. Though Africa holds the highest burden of this disaster, Europe has also witnessed 45 major droughts in the last century. On average, 15 per cent of Europe’s land is hit by drought, but the current spell has affected over 60 per cent of areas.
There are clear indications of drought becoming a lethal disaster: It accounts for 15 per cent of natural disasters in the world but has killed 0.65 million during 1970-2019, making it the deadliest one.
The world loses 12 million hectares of land every year to drought and desertification, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Forecasts by agencies like the International Organization for Migration show that by 2050, some 215 million people could be displaced due to drought and other climate-related factors. Two-thirds of the world population could be affected by drought by 2050.
Climate change is fuelling the intensity of drought in the already vulnerable regions while tightening its grip on not-so-vulnerable areas. According to UNCCD, “within the next few decades, 129 countries will experience an increase in drought — 23 primarily due to population growth and 38 because of their interaction between climate change and population growth.”
If the global warming level reaches 3°C by 2100, “drought losses could be five times higher than they are today, with the largest increase in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic regions of Europe.”
What we see now reflects this. As drought evolves into a planetary hazard, it has the potential to not only curb access to water but also severely diminish food production. With the population still rising and level of consumption increasing among certain groups, drought may be a threat to overall food security — a scenario seen in East Africa could be a reality for Europe as well.
Drought has been an existential hazard for those who depend on natural resources such as land for sustenance. Communities in countries like India, where half of the area is drought-prone, have developed adaptation measures for this.
These are mostly water and soil conservation measures that protect agriculture from dry spells and ensure enough water for domestic consumption. They are decentralised and sustained through either community or government support. So, the world, both rich and poor, must return to its roots and to indigenous communities who have mastered ways to tame disasters.
(Richard Mahapatra is Managing Editor, Down To Earth. Courtesy: Down to Earth.)
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Day of the Dead
Phil Knight
November 11, 2021: Of all the insults we inflict on the Earth, extinction of species may be the worst. As we dive deeper into the yawning void of the Sixth Extinction – the only one caused by humans, and the only one we have the power to stop – I have to wonder where it ends. Do we evolve and intentionally become something different, such as a brain in a machine; are we doomed by the Singularity to some Matrix-like future of serving technology; do we leave the planet behind as a smoking ruin and find other planets to despoil; do we manage to hang on in pitiful remnants on a depleted and bleak world; do we completely transform the Earth and turn every living thing in to human fuel; do we go down in flames with all those species we are annihilating?
Eventually everything is doomed. The sun will go Red Giant and devour the Earth. All the stars will eventually flame out and die. Why care? Why not succumb to hedonism and excess, live it up and suck it up. Who gives a flying fuck about some tweety birds, posies and varmints.
Why? Because the Earth, the stars, the Universe, somehow managed to bring forth these marvelous organic inventions that live and breathe and frolic and mate and fight and eat and hunt and fly and run and howl and sing. Because we are all refugees stranded on one blue marble in the vast cold emptiness, possibly (but unlikely) the only life in all the terrifying wilderness of space. Surely we should look after one another.
Why? Because it is the right thing to do – my gut tells me every time I hear of another extinction that we have made another giant mistake. Every time another species winks out, the world goes darker and we insult evolution, history, biology, and perhaps the Creator if there is one. We have cut off another branch from the tree of life and deprived another entire form of life of its right and its destiny to exist and to prosper.
Over the history of life in Earth, 99.9% of all species that have existed are now extinct. That makes the remaining ones all the more valuable and unique – these are the survivors, the ones who figured it out. They are also the species that may evolve into future life forms.
Millions of species exist (the actual number is unknown), but we have supercharged extinction through our exploitation of the Earth, causing extinction rates 1,000 to 10,000 times the natural “background” rate. The biggest problems come from habitat loss and degradation (mainly deforestation), overfishing and overhunting (think poaching), invasive species, climate change, and nitrogen pollution from agricultural runoff causing “dead zones” in oceans and lakes. Other major issues are plastic pollution and wildlife trafficking.
Meanwhile the human swarm approaches 8 billion. Terrestrial wild animals account for only 4% of the mammal biomass on Earth – the remainder is humans (34%) and livestock (62%). The wild animals that remain do so almost entirely at our sufferance.
Only about 3,900 wild tigers remain, compared to around 100,000 tigers one hundred years ago. Wild tigers remain only in Siberia, Sumatra and India (where they are actually making a comeback). Tigers, like Rhinos, pangolins and other species, are killed to make “traditional” medicines like tiger bone wine. Rhino horn, an alternative medicine used (with no affect) against cancer, and valued as an alleged aphrodisiac, is worth more than gold.
Critically endangered animals, according to the World Wildlife Fund, include African forest elephant, Sumatran elephant, Sumatran Rhino (80 left), Amur leopard, Sunda tiger, Black Rhino, Javan Rhino (70 left), Orangutan (3 species), Cross River Gorilla, Eastern Lowland Gorilla, Western Lowland Gorilla Hawksbill Turtle, Yantzee Finless Porpoise. The Northern White Rhino population is now two animals – both females.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, over 26,500 species are in danger of extinction. This includes 40 percent of amphibians, 34 percent of conifers, 33 percent of reef-building corals, 25 percent of mammals and 14 percent of birds. In the U.S., over 1,600 species are listed as threatened or endangered.
Rare and endangered animals in the US include the Red Wolf, Black-footed ferret (once thought extinct), Canada lynx, Florida Panther, Jaguar, Ocelot, Califonia Condor, Northern and Southern Sea Otter, Polar Bear, Sonoran Pronghorn, Giant Sea Bass and Wood Bison. How many of these have you seen?
All of these are spectacular, irreplaceable species, once in a lifetime sightings for wildlife enthusiasts, essential parts of the ecosystem where they live. Note that many of them are predators, and a number are big cats. Predators tend to take the brunt of abuse from humans, since they tend to come into conflict with us over territory, food, and safety.
Also according to the IUCN, 467 species have gone extinct globally in the last decade – and that is merely the ones we know about. In the US only 1.3% of species listed under the Endangered Species Act have since been delisted. And let’s not forget that includes the gray wolf that is currently being slaughtered by the states of Wisconsin, Idaho Wyoming and Montana. However, less that one half of 1% of listed species have gone extinct.
Extinction in its current accelerated state is not natural. Humans may have come from the Earth but we have gone rogue. We have no overseer, no minder, no lawman telling us when to stop. We don’t seem to be able to control our worst impulses. We squat on the planet like a global army of golems, greedily gobbling up everything within reach. We know what we are doing is wrong, but like the alcoholic or habitual sexual offender we cannot stop. We cannot keep our greedy paws off of the riches of the Earth, wanting only to line our foul nests with more stuff, more wealth, more more more. When is enough enough?
The Anthopocene should be renamed the Anthro-obscene.
In my dreams, Wooly Mammoths stalk the suburbs, reining havoc and terror on the inhabitants as they rampage through backyards, topple fences, stomp on cars and chase children screaming down the streets. Giant ravenous short faced bears, fast as antelope, big as a car, pick off pedestrians and eat them whole. Over the ridge, through the new subdivision, comes a massive pack of Dire wolves, howling in unison as they run down and slaughter dog walkers and stroller moms, sending residents fleeing for their lives and leaving their pooches for the wolves to devour. Like living harvesters, giant ground sloths rage across the fields, gobbling up entire seasons of harvest, trampling crops and leaving the farms a wasteland. Saber-toothed cats rampage through downtowns, slashing at shoppers and chasing panicked humans off bridges into rivers where massive crocodiles finish them off with death spirals.
Instead of Pleistocene megafauna, we have invisible viruses running rampant in the suburbs and cities. Is it any wonder nature is fighting back with ever more potent pandemics, rising seas, violent weather, and heat waves?
As I wrote in 1989, in an essay in the Wild Rockies Review entitled A Great Loneliness, “As many as 30 species of life a day are going extinct. These species are our brothers and sisters in evolution and destiny. The utter horror of it overwhelms me and brings a deep panic…extinction rips holes in the fabric of life, bringing decay and eventual collapse.”
We are the deciders of the fate of millions of other nations of life. How or why this should be so is clearly a matter of chance – humans happened to be the ones to become too successful. Now we gaze in the mirror and see our nasty side, our destructive and wasteful side, but there are too many of us to stop.
We know what to do. We need to stop having so many children. We need to reduce our consumption of resources. We need to redistribute wealth. We need to end deforestation and ramp up reforestation. We need to eat less meat and perhaps NO seafood. We need to leave all remaining fossil fuel in the ground.
We have actually saved a number of species (mostly birds) via fairly simple steps like banning DDT. Other species are much harder to save, such as elephants which are targeted for their ultra-valuable tusks. But we saved most whale species (at least for now) by a global ban on whaling (which some countries still ignore). If we can save whales on a global scale, who not tigers? Rhinos? Great apes?
The visionary biologist EO Wilson urges that 50% of the Earth be set aside as nature reserves. President Biden launched his 30×30 initiative partly in response to Wilson’s idea. Unfortunately 30×30 has devolved into an “infrastructure” program which will include massive deforestation in the name of an ill-advised “fuels reduction” program to combat forest fires on public lands.
Can we do it? Can we pull back from the brink that we ourselves have created? It ain’t looking good. If There I a judgement day some day we will have a lot to answer for. But I for one will not let our fellow creatures go down without a fight. How about you?
(Phil Knight is an environmental activist in Bozeman, Montana. He is a board member of the Gallatin-Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance. Courtesy: CounterPunch.)
