The clarion call of climate change

"Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee."

John Donne

"All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster".

Barack Obama

That which follows was written some two years ago despite this I still feel it accurately reflects my current thinking on the subject. I decided to add this paragraph to accomodate the outcome of the recent Copenhagen summit COP'15. When I consider it's outcome I am struck by the extent of national protectionism prevalent in the accord, do those involved really believe that both the impact on and consequence of, climate change respects national boundaries or interests? Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the whole event was the increased presence of climate change naysayers amongst the protestors. If I was a conspiracy theoroist I might believe that the global financial crisis has somehow been exacerbated by those who fear a loss of power and priviledge should the people of the world begin to live more sustainably and consume less.

Whilst I believe climate change is a very important issue and threat, I fear it is a warning sound for much worse to come. It is now apparent that climate change is a reality and that our activities are playing the major part in driving the current changes. Climate change however has happened to greater and lesser extents throughout the history of the earth, with as significant consequences as those predicted today by bodies such as the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). The interesting thing to note is that life has continued to exist despite even greater changes than those currently predicted over the next one hundred years or more.

The issue for us is founded in our anthropocentric view of the world, we seem to believe that the earth exists for us, when it doesn’t, at worst it just exists and best it exists for itself. Man has existed on the earth for but the blink of an eye compared to the time in which it has supported other life forms and no matter what we do or how we evolve it is unlikely that we will still exist anywhere close to the time when life on earth is extinguished. I contend that the climate change we are causing, along with all the other ills we are currently visiting upon the earth are simply symptomatic of the earth recognising us as malignant, as we would a viruses, growing out of control and producing toxic by-products which cause other parts of the whole distress. The interesting point is that is where the metaphor collapses because whilst when the subject dies viruses can find another host, we cannot find another place like Earth. Even more important though is that the life on Earth is far more robust than us and is far less deterministic in its needs for existence.

Climate change is simply a piece of active feedback for the rest of the system to adapt to, for us as the quote from John Donne above suggests it is a warning, change or be changed! We have been gifted a certain kind of intellect, which offers increased within lifetime awareness and therefore offers us the personal choice to change, other species will simply adapt over generations or die to be replaced by another species better equipped to survive but rest assured whatever we do, life will survive. The question being asked of us is; will we adapt and change our ways or choose to cling on to our view that we own the world and die? Climate change is the Earth warning us that we are the authors of our own destiny, nothing more, nothing less.

There is an argument to be made for doing nothing, ignoring the warning, that’s what every other part of the system would do, except trying to compete for the least detrimentally affected places to live. We would then, at least for this generation, continue to be a consumer driven, strive for and get what you want species, which would then die back until our population levels were sustainable again, assuming we hadn’t changed things so much that we were unable to survive in the environment our excesses had created. I wonder however if that is why we have evolved to have a brain able to reflect on such issues. We seem through our greater consciousness to have been offered a choice of moving beyond ourselves and to consider the potential generations that follow us. With our intellect comes the opportunity to reflect on what opportunities life can offer, above the need to survive and reproduce. It seems to me that this is what the book of Genesis was getting at; with awareness comes responsibility, with desire comes consequence and with knowledge comes fear.

Each and every one of us has a choice to make, it surrounds a choice to care and a choice to take responsibility but this does not have to be at the expense of a rich and meaningful life. We are meaning making creatures; if we choose what we value and ensure that sits well with the rest of the Earth then all can be well. This will however require a massive shift in what we currently choose to value and identify ourselves with.