The issue that should loom largest for us all => Are We Falling Off the Climate Precipice?
I teach at a college in Indiana and I'm usually wrapped up in how important it is for students in my classes to understand what we teach in our department -- how much they could help people in their future profession if they'll take some of the lessons that we teach with them.
I also get chills from time to time as I think about the climate crisis (not related to my focus at work) and I think about a quote I remember from an professor who was completely absorbed in his academic work during WWII. He was on the faculty at a University in Germany studying languages. When the war was over he was left to wonder why he kept focusing on his "important" academic work -- while millions died.
My point is: If we fall off the climate precipice, what I'm teaching really won't matter because there won't be people around for my students to help. Our ecological systems have tipping points and we don't know where they are. So what am I going to do about it?
Are We Falling Off the Climate Precipice? Scientists Consider Extinction
I grew up planning for my future, wondering which college I would attend, what to study, and later on, where to work, which articles to write, what my next book might be, how to pay a mortgage, and which mountaineering trip I might like to take next.
Now, I wonder about the future of our planet. During a recent visit with my eight-year-old niece and 10- and 12-year-old nephews, I stopped myself from asking them what they wanted to do when they grew up, or any of the future-oriented questions I used to ask myself. I did so because the reality of their generation may be that questions like where they will work could be replaced by: Where will they get their fresh water? What food will be available? And what parts of their country and the rest of the world will still be habitable? ....
“We as a species have never experienced 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of evolutionary biology, natural resources, and ecology at the University of Arizona and a climate change expert of 25 years, told me. “We’ve never been on a planet with no Arctic ice, and we will hit the average of 400 ppm... within the next couple of years. At that time, we’ll also see the loss of Arctic ice in the summers… This planet has not experienced an ice-free Arctic for at least the last three million years.”
For the uninitiated, in the simplest terms, here’s what an ice-free Arctic would mean when it comes to heating the planet: minus the reflective ice cover on Arctic waters, solar radiation would be absorbed, not reflected, by the Arctic Ocean. That would heat those waters, and hence the planet, further. This effect has the potential to change global weather patterns, vary the flow of winds, and even someday possibly alter the position of the jet stream. Polar jet streams are fast flowing rivers of wind positioned high in the Earth’s atmosphere that push cold and warm air masses around, playing a critical role in determining the weather of our planet.
Are We Falling Off the Climate Precipice? Scientists Consider Extinction
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riots and increased chances for war over greatly diminishing resources.
And I, for one, am ready for the ride.
