Wow, it has been a long time since I posted a rant. Certainly not because I've had nothing to rant about; the beat goes on regarding injustice, ignorance, cruelty, greed, and more. Today I am ranting about climate change or global warming or whatever you want to call it.
One has only to look back, way back, to understand this. Our earth's climate is changing every minute. Here in north Florida, it can be cold one day and warm the next. Big shifts take so much longer, eons, to be evident. The weather service has been collecting data only since the mid-1800s, but our ancestors often wrote about too much rain or not enough rain. Crops failed. People and animals starved.
Have humans caused changes in the weather or is this strictly a natural process? I think it is some of each.
Way, way back, humans foraged for food, moving their clan as the plants and animals were depleted and as the seasons changed. Or they worked hard to gather and preserve enough food to last through the winter. When humans began to farm - clearing plots of land, diverting streams, domesticating animals - they began to subtly change the climate. These changes were small, much like the beating of a butterfly's wing or the ripples in a lake caused by a pebble. Over time, the human population grew because there was a reliable source of food most of the time and as long as the weather didn't interfere with a drought or flood or some other disaster.
Our brains grew and our thoughts turned to ways to grow more food for the burgeoning population. But all the time we were helping our planet change - moving dirt, hacking away at the forests, impounding water. We imitated nature in little ways. And then our fabulous brains led us to what we call the Industrial Revolution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution). We began not so much imitating nature as trying to control nature in a BIG way.
If sacrificing a goat or doing a rain dance didn't end a drought then sending an airplane to seed the cloud would be the ticket (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding). Building massive dams allowed a lot of people to live where they previously could not (think Las Vegas and Los Angeles). We blast away mountains to build roads. Not all progress is good.
This is only my opinion and a simplistic one at that. I think I'm presenting a common sense argument. Common sense is sorely lacking in the climate change debate over whether humans are causing the climate to change. That our actions over thousands of years have exacerbated the earth's shifting climate must be considered. Changing our actions will not stop these changes, but we can slow them down.
How can it be denied that glaciers are melting? How can we turn a blind eye that the seas are rising and coastal cities are flooded more frequently? The argument should not be over the causes but what we are going to do about it. Building higher seawalls in Miami while development is not only allowed but encouraged while more water is being pulled from the aquifer is a short term fix but NOT a solution.
So do your part. Get rid of your lawn, Stop using herbicides or anything with 'cide in its name (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-cide). Stop buying and throwing away stuff. Stop wasting water. Start protecting our natural resources. Do your part.
Well, that's my rant of the moment for now.
