Another colleague has been rather persistent in calling me out for not being an avid “global warmist” — well, to be fair, the criticism has been shifting more onto my skepticism towards much of the scientific community’s ranting about “climate change”. So, since I’m on this pulpit about politicians and their complete irrationality at times, let me make a comment or two about “climate change”. My biggest annoyance about all this is that people actually think two things — 1) that changing climate is somehow new, and 2) that we can actually stop it or even slow it down that much (as it we can control nature or replace God — depending on your religious perspective).
Why do we think we are so smart that we can actually stop climate change when it has been a variable on this planet for more than eons of millennia, if not in perpetuity? One major volcanic eruption sets our air quality back a few notches and gives us an atmospheric blanket that changes the ability of the sun to penetrate to the earth. Given enough of these eruptions earlier in earth’s history and we actually were given fossil fuels due to the extinction of the dinosaur age. Moreover, every time I hear that some ice cap is disappearing, I learn that another ice cap is growing. Just when I’m told that skiing will soon be a lost art, we get so much snow on the mountain that we are looking at the potential of another 200 year flood, one year after the last 200 year flood. And when winter will so be a historical remembrance, the Great Lakes all but freeze over…
Why can’t we just accept that the proper term should be “climate variability” and start spending our resources adapting to our ever-changing and thus new worlds? The prairies were once a tropical paradise (at least according to scientists) and now if they are warming again, why not embrace the concept of more agricultural possibilities — Lord knows we’ve eaten up a tonne of good land to build sprawling cities?
Acid rain was one thing… excessive polluting smoke from mills, factories and exhaust pipes was another… Polluted water is almost always correctable, even when it means we have to alter agricultural practices (especially with cattle and with fertilizing our orchards, vineyards and fields)…
But for the life of me I cannot understand why we are tied up in knots about +2C (and not +1.75C or +2.2C or +3.6C) instead of moving forward with gusto to: use the lands that are opening up in the north to feed the world; work on developing mega-biospheres on rocky ground (like in northern Ontario) to find new places to build cities for the global shifts in population, and use our resources that are currently very valuable to fund all this…
We have become a society of negativity so deeply ingrained that we budget huge deficits, leave our resources unharvested, and seem to think we are somehow saints as we will our Grandkids an inheritance of poverty and disconnectedness.
As a sidebar I might add a reminder on the subject of oil: it is interesting to note how successful US Big Oil has been in funding protests in Canada — the US has now become exporters of oil and LNG, while we bicker and fight among ourselves and become increasingly poorer even though we have currency in the ground that could finance all the innovation, immigration and adaptation we could imagine in this century…
I realize this is a conversation on the limits of science but science is an imperfect art — it is always discovering, often at the expense of earlier discoveries. I am reminded of what I was told by the scientists in the 70’s when working on water, fish, and other major futurist studies — prepare people for the pending ice age. I thought they were extremists then and I worked hard for a more “middle course”. I have not lost my focus today, I’m just not in the same demand to help lead (that is now your task)… I can only hope my US Grandkids will grow up with compassion towards their Canadian cousins…for I fear that by 2050, unless we dramatically change our course, Canada as Laurier’s “country of the 20th century” will be hardly remembered as a country of anything other than overcrowded cities, warring within and among themselves, while the northern agricultural lands, having been bought by Americans and Chinese are producing food to be shipped everywhere but within our borders…
It is always good to know that climate is variable; it is even better to figure out how to adapt… we are letting that train leave the station while we squabble over whether we want to ride on with a diesel or electric engine…again Madame Politician, start standing up for affordable futures. We keep bringing more new Canadians into the country — what will their future be if all our wealth is stuck in/on the ground? Will the only job be cleaning up after sleeping, befuddled protesters at then shuttered resources mines, mills and finishing plants?
g.w.
PS
And don’t get me going about your desire to tax the rich out of existence. I realize that some CEO’s get exorbitant salaries, and certain corporations are very wealthy, but those same personages and entities are the ones that sponsor the arts, give big donations to local hospital drives, support charities and actually spend money on things that well-paid, skilled people make. These financial contributions usually are making up for inadequate funding or complete disinterest on the part of governments. Ever think of where our symphonies, art galleries, operas, student scholarships (and many other aspects of post-secondary education), amateur sports programs (and many professional sports for that matter) would be without the help of the well-to-do. If you are in doubt, take a trip to Edmonton and notice the art gallery, the Peter Lougheed College (in fact the entire campus of the UofA), the Winspear Concert Hall, the Muttart Conservancy, just for starters…