Thoughts on Climate Change
I read through this article on Rolling Stone after seeing a blog post about it on Dan Kimball’s Vintage Faith blog. The article is an interview with a British scientist named James Lovelock who believes we are all doomed and that the end is just a few brief decades away. Lovelock has argued, beginning in the 1970′s, the Earth is a giant superorganism we have pushed past its sustainable tipping point. Since I am not a climatologist, it is a little hard for me to argue with Lovelock’s science, what I can debate him on is call to action, or rather lack of it. For someone who is so convinced we have caused the end of life as we know it, Lovelock is surprisingly cynical about what we can do to stop or reverse the damage we have done to this point. I do agree with him when it comes to how sincere the “green business” movement is. Ever since I learned about the Step 2 Cotton Subsidy program and the power of the corn and sugar lobbies in Washington I’ve been skeptical of the long term practicality of things like e85 Ethanol as an alternative fuel (same with hydrogen fuel cells for cars). But this doesn’t mean we should abandon movements by large businesses to switch to CFL’s or run their AC a little less during the summer. I think Lovelock is right about nuclear power too. People see Chernobyl and mushroom clouds every time someone mentions building a new power plant but the fact remains that it is one of the cleanest and most efficient ways of generating power. Hydro is not a growth market because of the huge environmental footprint of new dams and wind and solar are far from able to generate power on the scale needed to completely replace fossil fuel based technologies. I also like that he takes issue with Christians who say we should only concern ourselves people because God will take care of the planet. God may have given man the ability to subdue the planet but we have been woefully silent when it comes to being good stewards of Creation.
The other problem I have with Lovelock is the way he can’t see past the impending disaster. If large portions of China become un-inhabitable like Lovelock says, are the Chinese really going to invade Siberia? Unlikely. Issues like this can and have been worked out. The population of the island nation of Tuvalu already has standing plans to move to New Zealand (among other Pacific island locations) should the sea level rise to the point of covering their islands. Now, obviously it is easier to move 10,000 people than 1 billion, but when faced with either finding a diplomatic solution or going to war, governments will overwhelmingly choose the diplomatic solution. Human civilization is a “living” superorganism just as as Lovelock argues the planet is. Lovelock views humans and their actions as predictable and fixed rather than variable and independent. People will adapt. Will their be massive famines and huge losses of life in the third world? I don’t doubt that. You don’t have to look further than your daily newspaper to realize that the West is largely indifferent to loss of life in Africa and South Asia. Time and again the West has proved that if you aren’t one of us, you are on your own. My point is, though, I see it more likely the West will retreat into technology based communities than collapse into hunter-gatherer tribal societies.
I’m certainly not perfect when it comes to my energy consumption. I certainly use a lot more power than I need to with my love of computers and other gadgets, but I think it is important to take small steps at reducing our personal footprint. Maybe Lovelock is right and simply changing your light bulbs won’t make a difference at this point. But if that is the case, then ever time you turn the thermostat down and put on a sweatshirt instead of cranking up the heat, think of it more as training for the future when we all live in Canada and Siberia than doing your part to save the environment.
