As Earth Day approaches on Monday, I find myself battling again with despair about climate change and what feels like a large increase recently in the number of extreme weather events that it is causing.  Today we are faced with an increasing number of cyclones, wild fires, hurricanes, extreme rainfall and flooding, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, desertification and probably a few others that don’t come as readily to mind.  According to weather.com, there were 39 weather disasters world-wide in 2018 that caused more than 1 billion dollars of damage each, which is crazy high. 

The idea that global warming is not connected with human activities is false, a delusion that must be confronted directly.  It is the nearly unanimous conclusion of earth scientists world-wide that the increase in temperature that earth is experiencing has been mostly caused by humans, primarily by the increasing release of CO2 emissions. Carbon emissions are increasing for a number of reasons, but currently this problem is mostly caused by exhaust fumes from cars and coal-based electricity. 

This graph of CO2 emissions from the NASA climate change website clearly shows an accelerating trend, beginning around 1950, that is increasing exponentially (directly vertical even!) as compared with data from the past 400,000 years.  You do not need to be a rocket scientist or engineer to understand that something must change!  Just extrapolate.

On the subject of consensus, the scientists state, “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. In addition, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.”

I think perhaps “climate deniers” and some people in the general public do not fully understand that statement and the rigor of this process. Scientists and engineers rely on empirical evidence (direct data/measurements collected) when they draw conclusions. And a credible, peer reviewed journal article is no easy thing to write – peer review is not a rubber stamp. The earth science community has been honing their models and conclusions for many years now, and you can see how strongly they feel about it by their use of the words “extremely likely.” It is impossible to get a more clear-cut, conclusive statement out of scientists than that.

It’s Holy Saturday and I think it is quite appropriate to talk about the groaning earth and the folly of humankind.  Holy Saturday is definitely a day about despair. And this despair leads me to ask the real question: where exactly is the tipping point for thermal runaway?  The climate models and direct observations are indicating that CO2 released into the atmosphere from coal-fueled electricity and car emissions will be exacerbated as the glaciers retreat and the ice in the arctic melts, releasing additional CO2. I am beginning to wonder if it might be too late already.  And then of course, the other really important question is why are we not doing so much more, in order to curb greed and to walk more gently on the earth?

Solving this global crisis needs to begin with an understanding of scientific processes, the development of a profound respect for science, and a rejection of “alternative facts,” something that I protested about in the Earth Day 2017 Houston Science March. The evidence is overwhelmingly compelling, and the call to action is urgent. Political action on the global level resulted in the signing of the Paris Climate Accord, but the US has recently withdrawn from the agreement. Now is the time for true leadership on environmental issues to come forward and I recommend that we all consider that in all upcoming elections. Local elections may be just as critical as national elections.

I am sure that I am not alone in my grieving for the planet, but it amazes me that some people still seem completely oblivious to the danger of increasing global temperatures. Please encourage others not to live in denial, but rather begin by making a few small changes at a personal level.  For example, minimize use of electricity, consider packaging when making purchases, recycle every kind of waste they will take, and take reusable bags with you to the grocery.  If enough people in denial take even a handful of small conservation-minded actions, it would make a positive contribution toward caring for the earth.

Our ancestors lived much closer to the land than we do and had to deal with plagues and droughts and other means of destruction that had a direct effect on their food, shelter, clothing and the livelihood of their communities. In those days, even mildly devastating weather patterns threatened their very survival. The following lament is a graphic snapshot from ancient times, when Ianna (later called Ishtar) was the Sumerian Mother Goddess.

A world is rising to weep with her. No longer does the grass grow green. No longer does the grain grow tall. No longer is there joy in the home. She is a weary woman, a girl withered far too soon. The river weeps for the willows that disappear. Swamps weep for the lake and the fish that have gone. Pastures weep for the flowers that have gone. Fields weep for the missing herbs and grains. Forests weep for the grasses that are parched. Hills and valleys weep for the cypresses. The vineyards weep for the dying vines. The palace weeps for the life that is no more.

Anonymous Lament, Mesopotamian Oral Tradition (bce)

So in the rawness, isolation and polarizing atmosphere of the world today, I am hoping that there will also be a rising to weep in us all for the current crisis that echoes the ancient lamentation above. And I pray that this cry will rise up from our core, as a crescendo of many previous expressions of grief over the devastation of the earth. May it bring to consciousness something that can get us moving in the right direction and put our feet directly on the path to justice for the earth, the only home we have.

Post Script: For another depressing and troubling article, read “Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science,” New York Times, May 27, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/us/politics/trump-climate-science.html.

 

Reference 1: “There Were 39 Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters in 2018, And the First One of 2019 Has Already Occurred,” weather.com, January 23, 2019.

Reference 2: NASA climate change website https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Reference 3: Ford-Grabowsky, Mary, “Sacred Voices: Essential Women’s Wisdom Through the Ages,” HarperCollins, San Francisco, CA, 2002, p. 23.