The only change is the climate of fear

3/14/2007 The verdict, apparently, is in. Climate change is a reality. Whether mankind is the cause, or not, is still open to debate, but experts are pretty much in agreement that Earth’s mercury is on the rise. Are we ready to do something about it? No. Not yet. While politicians continue to toss the word Kyoto around like a sun-baked hot potato, the general public is still not taking global warming seriously—and no one will, until it begins to directly affect them personally. The average person walking this globe will continue to laugh at the warnings, unless it gets too hot to play golf, hens lay hard-boiled eggs, or a storm huffs and puffs and blows their own house down. Until that day comes, most of us will welcome the idea of global climate change. Truth be told, there are many benefits associated with a warmer climate. Plants love greenhouse gases, and warming would extend or enrich growing seasons, increasing agriculture and the world’s ability to feed itself. Arctic shipping lanes could be opened, rising sea levels pose little real threat, people will be healthier, etc. etc. etc. The bottom line is that we are unwilling to make the changes necessary to halt, or reverse, climate change. The world is getting more and more complex, and our problems are getting more complex right along with it. Several hundred years ago, the greatest problem facing a person in the middle of the night was how to keep their candle lit while hurrying to the outhouse. No one cared about how hot it was, because they were too busy trying to live past the age of 25, or not go crazy from eating mouldy bread and sheep’s stomach off plates made of lead. You can’t ask civilized nations to go backwards. No sane person is going to give up on satellite TV, jumbo jets and plastic packaging to go roaming the countryside eating green apples and riding on the back of a cow. We live in a world of instant gratification, where self worth is found in the amount of accessories and material possessions a person is able to accumulate. We want the world and we want it now, and it all comes with a price. New technology will evolve to fight climate change, and it won’t be found in any new outhouses or candle power. No one is going to go back to the days of hunting and gathering for the sake of a few degrees. We encounter or create new problems every day, and our success as a species lies in our ability to rise above these problems. And I have no doubt that we will. Time teaches us that species either adapt or fail on this planet. Take a quick look around. Humankind doesn’t appear to be failing, and only a pessimist would suggest that it is. Climate change is simply that; change. Change is good. Breeding fear of change is not a solution. It is cowardice. Right now, however, it is fun to care about climate change. Socially and politically, it is our new cold war, if you will pardon the pun. All the doomsday nonsense amounts to little more than hot air, which, ironically, is the problem in the first place. So, you won’t see me crying over the heat this summer. I’ll be too busy planting trees.