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Followers of the climate change debate know that both sides bring a lot of passion to the argument. Believers don't understand how the skeptics can just stand by and watch the planet circle the drain. They are convinced that most skeptics are unwitting tools of big money. Skeptics don't understand how believers can expect people to commit billions of dollars to solve a problem that may not exist. They are convinced that believers are naïve tools of big government.As the comments go back and forth and the sparks fly, there are occasional moments when a fundamental truth is illuminated. Take this comment from mothballs I came across on a thread in the Daily Mail. (Presumably the MMGW stands for man-made global warming.)
To MMGW zealots answer the following:-
ALL man produced CO2 ends tomorrow:-
The Gobi and Sahara deserts bloom?
Fish stocks in the North Sea regenerate?
All people in Africa no longer starve?
All disease is ended?
The Arctic and Antarctic ice fields refreeze?
All hurricane and flood activity ends?
The Earth becomes a paradise where all 7 billion of us live in harmony with no deprivation?
All wars and religious hatred cease?
In formulating this rather eloquent list of humanity's failings and failures, mothballs unwittingly perhaps makes the case for those who argue that climate change is part of a much bigger set of problems that all feed on each other. As this blog has repeatedly tried to emphasize, climate change is about more than climate. It is about people and places, politics and power. But mostly it is about people, all 7 billion of us.
Thanks to all 7 billion of us, mankind has outrun the planet's ability to sustain us. Thanks to all 7 billion of us, we are forced to live in threatened habitats. Thanks to all 7 billion of us, we can't adjust to changes as rapidly as we need to. Thanks to all 7 billion of us, governments are under growing pressures to keep their share of the pie and let the other fellow worry about his.
As a believer, I am convinced that climate change acts as a multiplier and forcing agent on a whole range of issues, not just climate. In other words, it makes them worse and it makes them happen faster than they otherwise might have.
So no, ending all man produced CO2 tomorrow won't make the deserts bloom, it won't usher in an era of prosperity and the brotherhood of man. But it is a part of the problem and it does need to be a part of the solution. That much I do believe.
This essay first appeared in Planet Restart.
