OUR GREATEST CHALLENGE

For someone with a degree in applied science, I should know better. Maybe it was just that as a resident of a northern climate, I didn’t see the problem with the earth warming up a couple of degrees over the next few decades. (I like the idea of warmer winters.)

Whatever my reasons I have to admit to being so tired of the drastic claims and alarms, and so unwilling to accept the possibility of the worse case scenario, that I simply tuned out the “debate” about global warming. (The world still looks fine out my window. Can these predictions of massive change really be true? Isn’t it possible that these are natural fluctuations of the earth’s climate?)

As much as I would like to believe there is still a “debate” about Global Warming, (I really do enjoy my lifestyle and don’t want to change if I don’t have to) the undeniable truth is that there is no longer any credible, independent, body of scientists that remain in doubt about what is happening. Consider the following:

Uncomfortable Realities

1 ) Is It Really Happening? - Contrary to what you might hear from many of our political leaders, there is no longer doubt that the climate is warming dramatically, and that it is caused by human activity. Here is an excerpt from Science Magazine that summarizes the science:

“The scientific consensus is clearly expressed in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Programme, IPCC's purpose is to evaluate the state of climate science as a basis for informed policy action, primarily on the basis of peer-reviewed and published scientific literature (3). In its most recent assessment, IPCC states unequivocally that the consensus of scientific opinion is that Earth's climate is being affected by human activities: "Human activities ... are modifying the concentration of atmospheric constituents ... that absorb or scatter radiant energy. ... [M]ost of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations" [p. 21 in (4)].

IPCC is not alone in its conclusions. In recent years, all major scientific bodies in the United States whose members' expertise bears directly on the matter have issued similar statements. For example, the National Academy of Sciences report, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, begins: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise" [p. 1 in (5)]. The report explicitly asks whether the IPCC assessment is a fair summary of professional scientific thinking, and answers yes: "The IPCC's conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue" [p. 3 in (5)].”

2) Who Cares If It Gets A Little Warmer? - Contrary to the widely held belief that a little global warming might hurt some, benefit others, and generally be manageable, the rising tide of independent science points to many unanticipated natural feedback loops that present catastrophic tipping points after which we simply cannot recover. For example, the rapidly receding ice caps are melting permafrost, which is releasing gigatons of methane into the atmosphere. As methane is 20 times worse a green house gas than carbon dioxide, its potential impact on the atmosphere is catastrophic. (The last time this happened, 251 million years ago, almost all life on earth was wiped out.)

Other emerging feedback loops that are accelerating warming concern two of the major mechanisms of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the oceans and the forests. As the oceans warm, their ability to absorb CO2 diminishes. As global warming changes traditional rain patterns, many of our larger forests (often called the lungs of the earth) are beginning to die off. The current severe drought in the Amazon is raising the possibility of a massive die off in the tropical forests.

So we are not talking about earth getting just a little warmer. What we are starting to realize is that we are in the midst of earth’s 6th mass extinction. There have been 5 mass extinction events in the last 500 million years. The last occurred 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs died off. This current extinction event is man-made and it is happening quickly. (Close to 70% of the biologists polled by the American Museum of Natural History believe we are in the middle of a mass extinction event. The normal rate of species loss is one every 5 years. We are currently losing over 25,000 species a year.)

3) Let Someone Else Worry About It – One of the unfortunate dividends of our materialist modern cultures is we are all too busy with our lives, careers and activities to get involved in bigger social/political/environmental issues.

We tend to delegate leadership and too many important decisions to our governments. (In the most recent Federal Elections close to 40% of eligible U.S. voters didn’t bother to voice their opinion - approx, 35% in Canada.) And it is my opinion that too many of our leaders, political and industrial, are too stuck in a win-lose mentality (maximize the wins for themselves of a narrowly defined “team”, even if it means a significant loss to others or the environment.) People are just too disconnected from each other and the world we live in to really see what is happening.

Clearly our existing leadership is not going to save us. We need to save ourselves.

What is Possible?

For over 400,000 years before the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere were in the rage of 190 – 290 PPM (parts per million). In the last hundred years they have risen to over 378 PPM. Many scientists feel that the atmospheric tipping point may be in the range of 450-550 PPM - as little as 24 years away at our current levels of production.

If we can all realize the severity of this threat, and act now, we may still have enough time to change direction. However our window of opportunity is small and closing quickly.

Other generations had their challenges. This generation is now waking up to the biggest challenge that ever faced humanity. Future generations will not forgive us if we fail to act.

What We Can Do?

Get informed - There is a lot of nonsense masquerading as science out there. To be a positive agent of change, you need to be well informed. Read. Listen. Watch. Learn. Come to your own informed conclusions on this important topic.

Get active – An issue this important and urgent cannot be left to others. We all need to take ownership of making change. Get involved. Support groups that are working on this issue. Raise money for political parties that are committed to initiate and support global (cross industry, multinational) initiatives for environmental change. (The cost per vote for the winning party in the last U.S. Presidential election was $5.92. To make a significant change in any election takes a lot of money.)

Walk the talk – Conserve energy wherever possible. Drive less, and if you have to drive, use more fuel efficient cars. At home, typically 60% of energy consumption is in the heating system, 22% in water usage, and 13% in lights. By shifting to more energy efficient technology you can dramatically reduce emissions. (By simply replacing my 18-year-old furnace, I cut the consumption of fossil fuels in my house in half.) Here are some other things you can do to conserve.

Raise Consciousness – Problems are always growth waiting to happen. Our biggest problem is that humanity’s power and knowledge has evolved faster than our collective wisdom and compassion.

We need to raise consciousness. We need to coach more people to begin to see how interdependent we all are, and how closely our own health and prosperity is linked to the health of the world as a whole.

Steve Mitten MCC

Life and Business Coach