HAVE WE REALLY DONE IT?

As I write this piece, I’m sitting in my back garden, the sun’s shining and a gentle breeze caresses my face.
Ahhh, it’s a beautiful world – it really is.
But, not according to the nearly President, Al Gore; according to him, and his recent movie, An Inconvenient Truth, we’re just about at the end. The damage perpetrated on the Earth by human pollution of all kinds is wide-ranging. Seas are rising; glaciers are melting; forests are dwindling (and CO2 is increasing).
Well, that may well be true, however there is a certain belief that this is simply a cycle; a cycle that occurs every 10,000 years (remember we and our detrimental influence have only been here for about 2 of those 10).
Many scientists believe this (at least the non-prophetic ones). Furthermore, if this is the case then the cycle, if it occurs every 10,000 years, could well last for, what, a thousand, five hundred, one hundred? Any way you look at it, it’s a long time to put up with El Nino type weather.
We’re told that we must reduce our emissions; that it’s not yet too late, that if we all pull together, Kyoto-wise, we’ll be able to pull it back from the brink.
With a population of six billion and rising, finding a way to exist in such numbers is proving to be the challenge to end all challenges.
The Dead Sea is now a trickle according to reports. The once holy Dead Sea is getting smaller and smaller. What’s left is being ‘plundered’ to use the actual term in the report, by a huge minerals company. Before our very eyes the Sea is dying. And for those whose only concern is financial, the report goes on to assert that buildings’ foundations on the edge are in danger of collapse. Tch! It’s a sad indictment that the final persuasion comes down to the ‘cold, hard stuff’.
An unstoppable force, man’s desire for wealth and power, consumes all.

Moreover, what if it’s too late and we can’t actually pull it back no matter what we do? No-one in any government is going to admit to such a thing because if they do, well the response will undoubtedly be one of apathy. Well, if it’s too late, what’s the point in trying anymore?



Or maybe Mother Earth and her weather patterns is just so big, (and we’re so insignificant) that nothing we do makes the slightest difference.
We as a species are destructive – it’s as simple as that and if as some believe, Mother Earth is a living single organism with countless parts, she may just step in and take control.
A recent report from the WWF, claims that in the last three decades three hundred – that’s right – three hundred species – have become extinct. Soon the only place to see certain species will be in a zoo. The report goes on to claim that we are living a ‘three world existence’, meaning that the rate at which we are using the planet’s commodities would take three planets to sustain. And still, man’s eternal quest for the mighty dollar supersedes all else.
And in this never ending search for the mighty dollar, we’ll rape and pillage the Earth and all it’s commodities until there are none left and the planet,s own sustainability will be affected.
Then, dear readers, we’re really screwed. Similar to trying to ‘put the genie back in the bottle’, it’ll be too late.

Y’know, as I was researching the subject of the article, I came across some disturbing information, illustrating frighteningly the danger we now face. I myself know how this’ll end. (But people write me off as some sort of doomsayer – rich really, considering these same people have their collective heads firmly ensconced in the sand).
Now, according to Sir Michael Stern, the author of the Stern report, a recent economic report on the current effects and solutions, we all know.
A 20% shrinkage of the global economy was one point. 100 million displaced by rising sea levels another.
Melting glaciers resulting in water shortages for 1 in 6 people and the advent of climate refugees will see tens, likely hundreds of millions more displaced.
Where will these people go? Well, to the only places left to them – unaffected countries. Potentially mass exoduses from the blighted land to the more prosperous (which actually won’t be prosperous for long once the millions find their way there).
A bleak picture indeed and one that calls for immediate action to prevent the eventual costs exceeding trillions of pounds.

However…

Previously, it had been recorded, that this El Nino effect was simply part of a cycle experienced by Mother Nature herself. A theory I chose to believe as it happens.
This latest report seems to offer an alternative theory; that our outrageously high level of taking and polluting is actually the culprit. The Stern Report offers, when considered (and typical of the English) the only realistic answer.
However, the sort of shift required to cease and repair the problem means we would have to return to something resembling caveman times. That, simply will not happen.
So we’re left with the choice of taxing the polluters to stop them polluting. Of course the actual guilty (the rich), won’t pay a cent under the ‘powerful protecting their own’ theory and the ordinary Joes (you and I) will be harassed because they don’t recycle their plastic.


Although what if, as mentioned earlier, this is as some less alarmist scientists believe, just a cycle?
Y’see, we have to understand, we’re looking at this from a human scale; this is happening on a global scale and perhaps we have ideas above our station. Let’s say, for example, the Earth is a billion years old and civilization’s been around for about 2000.
According to the boffins, this cycle occurs every, what, 10,000 years?
If we compress Earth’s existence into a year, the cycle then occurs about once a week and we’ve been here about 20 mins.
Now, with that in mind, we can now see our place in things.
The scientists who make these claims also assert that our pollution is so small in global terms as to be insignificant. And that being the case, the billions we need to spend in a desperate attempt to stem our filth, will result in bringing a plethora of economic disasters to society. And given the actual scale of the event, have absolutely no discernible effect.
Those of you with a nervous disposition had better sit down and grab a stiff drink.
Our civilized planet is unravelling. It won’t make the slightest bit of difference to Earth; it’ll be here for several more billions of years, regardless of what happens. Some species will dominate, some will falter (that would be us), but ultimately, life will go on.
‘What can we do?’ I hear you ask. The short answer – nothing, nothing whatsoever. And the long answer, well, it’s not much longer – we can enjoy our lives while we’re here, because if they’re right and this is merely the cycle of a much mightier entity, man, despite all his intelligence and brilliance will perish. If you’re Christian, you’d better start praying!



One thing I know for certain – if we keep stuffing the planet with humans, nature will step in, as it has done in the past and the results will be Armageddon-like. Never mind Katrina. In the words of Jack Nicholson’s Joker in Batman – ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet”! Are you ready?