We May All Live Long Enough To Die Horribly, or, If You Always Wanted To Be Mad Max, You May Get Your Chance!
Who hasn't wanted to live in a post apocalyptical society ruled by evil warlords scavenging for fuel, food, and weapons? Well, in about 20 years or so whoever can survive the resource wars, plagues, extreme climate shifts and storms will get their chance! Or so says Dr. James Lovelock, originator of the "Gaia Hypothesis" and author of the book, "Revenge of Gaia", where you can read all about why it's the end of the world, as we know it. Here's what he has to say about long-term projects dealing with the environment: "It won't matter a damn," Lovelock says. "They make the mistake of thinking we have decades. We don't."
So who is this guy? Is he some kind of crackpot misanthrope trying to cash in on the global warming scare to sell a few books? Well, as it turns out, no.
The good Dr. has published over 200 scientific papers on Medicine, Biology, Instrument Science and Geophysiology, written 5 books on his Gaia Hypothesis and has filed more than 50 patents, mostly for detectors for use in chemical analysis. In fact in the late 50s his electron capture detector let us know that pesticide residue was being distributed in our environment EVERYWHERE. This little discovery led to the Rachel Carson book "Silent Spring" that jump-started the whole environmental movement. A short time later, that same nifty little detector detected PCBs in the atmosphere and let us know that we were kicking holes in our ozone.
NASA was so impressed by his doohickeys that they hired him to look for life on Mars and to develop even more doohickeys for the analysis of extraterrestrial atmospheres and planetary surfaces. Variations of Lovelock's detectors (or "doohickeys" as they are known in certain scientific circles) are used today in ocean research and by meteorologists to follow the movement of air masses across continents.
Today Dr. Lovelock is the President of the Marine Biological Association and an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Green College, Oxford University.
So why would such a fine upstanding member of the scientific community be saying things like:
"The world has already passed the point of no return for climate change, and civilization as we know it is now unlikely to survive."
And:
"Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable."
The reason he gives for these "sunny" predictions are Positive Feedback Loops and the desire to drive to McDonalds vs. common sense.
It's like this; it starts with the melting of the heat reflecting ice and snow caused by Global Warming (or because the sun is getting hotter or because of Satan's flatulence or whatever, it's getting warmer, ok?). As the Arctic grows bare (and who hasn't heard of the Greenland ice cap shrinking faster than Bush's approval ratings?) the dark ground emerges and absorbs heat which of course melts more snow and perma frost so you get the softening of peat bogs, which then releases methane gas that is about 20 times as powerful a greenhouse gas as CO2. This in turn warms the oceans and algae begin dying so less heat-causing carbon dioxide is absorbed, making it even warmer so that more snow melts, more dark ground emerges that absorbs more heat, melting more snow, softens peat bogs, methane, algae, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, Mad Max!
This is called a positive feedback loop, (or a vicious circle, or in Latin circulus vitiosus, or in Pig Latin, iciousvay irclesay) and positive feedback loops can run out of control and result in the collapse of the system. So, whether you believe in Global Warming or not, glaciers around the world are melting away like ice cream in the microwave, and the result is that it gets warmer, globally, every year.
So, get on your shoulder pads and spike that hair boy, we're going to war! Be on the lookout for breeding pairs, or pairs to breed with, by the way.
Or, quit driving so much and start eating veggies. Do something positive to slow down this positive feedback loop. Use reusable grocery bags, ride a bike somewhere, vote for a more responsible government. If we all work together... I know you've heard all the "We can do it" speeches before, but this happened to my wife in Mexico City:
She accidentally locked her keys in her car after an accident and was blocking traffic. The people got out of their cars, surrounded her car, picked it up and put it out of the way. Didn't help her much, but they got to go on about their business.
So, no matter how silly it looks, or how ineffectual you feel recycling your beer cans, or how many of your friends call you a Hippy Tree Hugger, if enough people work together, we can effect a change, but it has to be now, today, because, as Dr. Lovelock says, "They make the mistake of thinking we have decades. We don't."
Unless of course you want to be Mad Max, then you can just keep on with business as usual.
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
