OPINION & EDITORIAL
Humans must evolve, realize climate change is real
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Also by Nathan Braun:
- Few controversial issues clearly right; but gay rights one of them (November 1, 2007)
- Nuclear power worth risks (October 18, 2007)
- Humans must evolve, realize climate change is real (October 4, 2007)
- Life after Bush: Holding candidates to a higher standard of rhetoric (September 20, 2007)
- Taxes cost-effective energy solution (September 12, 2007)
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by Nathan Braun
Thursday, October 4, 2007
It's becoming increasingly apparent that we as humans are on a whole different level than the rest of the natural world when it comes to progress.
Consider something like DNA, which for 3.7 billion years has been made of the same building blocks in every organism on the planet. Or consider sharks, which like most of today's species, have been around for at least 100 million years. She may work a little slowly, but Mother Nature knows a good thing when she sees it.
Now consider the modern human being, which evolved a relatively short 200,000 years ago. Most people would be surprised to know just how recently we developed many of the things we take for granted. We didn't invent agriculture until 12,000 years ago, writing sometime in the last 6,000 years and electricity less than 200 years ago. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old; human beings and all their achievements should mean absolutely nothing on a geologic time scale.
At the same time, as the first species on earth with the ability to reason and make inferences about our world, our gains in knowledge and understanding are accelerating as well. We've walked around on the moon, decoded the human genome and invented the Internet, all within the past 50 years. How often does anyone stop and marvel at how incredible all this is?
Unfortunately, with breakneck progress comes the potential for trouble too. Consider climate change, which, in the span of 50 years has gone from a fringe concern to one of the biggest threats facing the planet. The average person barely had time to digest the issue before scientists were predicting the Artic would be free of ice by 2050.
Or consider a loss of biodiversity; scientists said this week that it will take a miracle for tigers to survive in India. Another recent report says the number of mountain gorillas is the lowest it's ever been. In short, species are going extinct at unprecedented levels.
We as humans are currently modifying our environment so fast we can't be sure of what the results will be.
In "A Brief History of Nearly Everything," biologist Stephan Jay Gould is quoted as saying, "One of the hardest ideas for humans to accept is that we are not the culmination of anything. There is nothing inevitable about us being here, it is part of our vanity as humans that we tend to think of evolution as a process that in effect was programmed to produce us."
I'd extend this to say that there's nothing inevitable about our continued existence either. Sure, there are a lot of unknowns regarding our interaction with the environment. For instance, we could very easily be dealing with a false alarm in regard to climate change. But, keeping in mind who we are and where we have come from, how much are we willing to risk to conduct business as usual?
It's helpful to keep all this in mind when discussing these issues. It keeps things in perspective when someone like President Bush gets up and says — as he did this week —that the United States is committed to solving global climate change, but in doing so we shouldn't do anything to hurt our economy. Isn't it possible we might be mixing up our priorities here? Put me down in favor of strong economic growth, but we should be sure the benefits outweigh the true costs of our actions on the environment and our planet.
Now, more than any time in history, we as a species have the intelligence and the ability to take a long hard look at what we've come from and where we may go.
Admittedly, there is uncertainty about climate change. With conditions on Earth changing so rapidly in such a short amount of time, how could there not be?
The days when we were able to plead ignorance on these issues are over. Only by keeping in mind how far we've come will we ever figure out the best way to move forward.
Nathan Braun (braun@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in economics
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 9:37am):
Global warming may be bad but global cooling would be worse. Madison would cease to exist as would civilization in general.
During the most recent North American glaciation, the Wisconsin glaciation (70,000 to 10,000 years ago), ice sheets extended to about 45 degrees north latitude. These sheets were 3 to 4 km thick.
This Wisconsinian glaciation left widespread impacts on the North American landscape. The Great Lakes and the Finger Lakes were carved by ice deepening old valleys. Most of the lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin were gouged out by glaciers and later filled with glacial meltwaters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 10:58am):
it's not bad to think of madison not existing anymore Mr. wikipedia citor, I'd be all for it
It's too bad that our carbon footprint was enough to make the glaciers go away before we were even on this continent. Climate change is real, but it's not global warming. The climate changes everyday, for example, it's sunny today but it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Crazy how that works huh?
Even if we were to curb any of our carbon emissions, it does not mean that natures own geological and atmospheric forces wouldn't force the ice caps into remission until the climate changes back to a cooling period. How do we explain the little ice age in the late to middle part of our last millennium that essentially disappeared out of nowhere.
Our environment is much stronger than any impact that humans may have upon it. Don't let the environmentalist libs get to you. Become a conservationalist who believes in creating a synergy between human activity and our environment. We can live together with our environment and prosper while promoting forest regrowth and preserving natural life. We don't have to jump off the deep-end to try and solve something we really have no control over.
Watch some Discovery Channel and History Channel for more information on how the climate has always changed and how human impact is really minimal at best on the environment.
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 12:13pm):
10:58 - have you ever taken a biology class?
Before you make sweeping generalizations about whether global warming exists, look at statistics on carbon emission - they extend back to 140,000 years ago gained from bubbles in Antarctic polar ice.
I am currently debating whether the current global warming is of enough significance that it needs to be addressed more than minimally. It does need to be addressed, but how much?
The climate change right now is normal - but it will have drastic effects on humanity. We are approaching this from an anthropocentric standpoint - rather than try to stop the climate change, we need to work with it. We are just another species on the Earth - we are not special, we are not custodians of the Earth, and we are not perfect, despite humanity's tendency to believe it.
- a neuroscience major who's actually taken enough biology to know what global warming is.
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 2:24pm):
it's the sun's fault.
that's why the polar caps of mars are melting.
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 2:25pm):
this is 10:58 responding, and yes i have taken a biology class
i agree that we need to work with the climate changes, but we have to realize what little impact we actually have on our environment in the broad context of the Earth as compared to its natural forces such as natural gas emissions and volvanic eruptions
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 2:26pm):
[sic] volcanic
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 4:51pm):
This is what everyone can agree on:
1) clean water is good
2) clean air is good
3) giving money to oil-rich countries is bad
This all seems simple, but everything gets mucked up by politics and special interests.
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 5:13pm):
hell yea 451p!
nicely said...plus, if china and india get to the new technologies first...we'll be their slaves.
too bad the liberals want to politicize the issue and talk about (sun) global warming.
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 5:46pm):
So 4:51, get on the pebble-bed nuclear power plant band wagon - it's the ONLY solution that will actually make a difference.
Run everything on electricity and only use oil to stop squeaks.
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 6:55pm):
It is true that the earth experiences wide ranges of temperature changes, due to such things as its wobble and tilt of the axis and the contraction and expansion of its orbit. These cyclical patterns produce the graphs of temperature and atmospheric carbon that we've all seen a million times over and Al Gore famously used in his documentary. Those who want to deny humans' impact on the earth also use these as their own "evidence" to show that there is a natural fluctuation. However, atmospheric carbon is currently averaging around 380ppm, the highest value in 650,000 years. Higher than the tallest peaks on those graphs. We are entering unchartered territory here, and we're in for one hell of a ride!
Anonymous (October 4, 2007 @ 8:18pm):
@ 10:58
"The climate changes everyday, for example, it's sunny today but it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Crazy how that works huh?"
Yeah, so CRAZY what you are talking about isn't climate at all! Its call "weather".
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