Aug 11 2007
A Perspective on Global Warming
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“If we can’t see a little of George Bush looking back at our reflection, we should look again…”
By Jean-Louis Robert Turcot and Emily Spence
8/11/07
The attempt to stop and possibly reverse Global Warming reminds of the aims of Helen Caldicott with respect to the dangers of a nuclear war. As much her goals were admirable with her tireless effort to inform, and to warn us about the possibility of a nuclear holocaust, we have not been able to change one single iota from that possibility.
At the same time, the Beyond War group used the bucket-of-shotgun-pellets method to demonstrate that one single pellet represented all of the firepower of the entire Second World War, while the entire bucket represented the nuclear weapon potential to make war… Again, even though the representation was graphic and dramatic, it did not change anything whatsoever relative to the nuclear menace. Indeed, our nuclear capacity is only becoming more pronounced over time.
Unfortunately, some of us don’t see how informing anyone about the threat of Global Warming will change anything until it may be too late to do much about it. James Lovelock, in his predictions about it, could have added the apparent fact that the planet Venus has temperatures that hover around 800 degrees F., while Mercury, much closer to the sun, has temperatures of about 300 degrees F. and that the apparent cause of Venus’ temperatures are mainly due to greenhouse gases. If one extrapolates those figures to include the Earth’s increasing greenhouse gases with the apparent forthcoming release of gases from the oceans, melting ice and bog lands, as well as methane gas escaping from permafrost environments, even without a nuclear war, the outcome could be very horrific… and perhaps beyond the point of no return… as in an irreversible, but temporary, exponential temperature increase, which could end life as we know it.
If we do have any long-term chance to survive our innate stupidities, we will have to look into our mirrors and see what needs to be changed in order to change the rest of the world. If we can’t see a little of George Bush looking back at our reflection, we should look again… but then again, most people don’t want to look too closely in the mirror, as they, sanctimoniously, feel it’s the “other guy” who is the real culprit.
Besides, most people don’t want to face any ugly realities, anyway, wherever they originate. As W. Lance Bennett pointed out, “When faced with a choice between confronting an unpleasant reality and defending a set of comforting and socially accepted beliefs, most people choose the later course.”
All considered, there is a new television series called ‘Planet Earth’. In the ‘JUNGLES’ episode, Chimpanzees are involved. One of the features in that particular sequence shows a group of Chimpanzees about to raid and make war on another group of their kind. The stealth of the group is truly amazing and depicts our own way of doing things to a tee… We have graduated from clubs to a-bombs, but the characters are one and the same… Another simian-like episode, taken from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ also shows an ape-like animal discovering the power of a club… which is transformed into a weapon as the ape discovers its powers.
From many people’s perspectives, it seems that dire warnings have no lasting effect. Although necessary, they will not, in and of themselves, change outcomes unless we all take responsibility for our actions –with every single one of us doing so in order to propel civilization in an entirely new direction.
We were borne from a survival of the fittest environment and we have done very well to establish our dominance, but as far as nature is concerned, we are a menace to life itself, and hence nature may do what it does best when a species does not fit in its realm. As such, it may just get rid of the nuisance that we are, simply by letting us do whatever we do best, which is to use our collective intelligence to demonstrate our stupidity. (It is said that the Dodo birds did not fear ‘man’, and hence became extinct. In that vein, it seems as if we don’t fear each other’s actions enough to escape a similar fate.)
It is regretful if this is too dismal a view to accept. While many of us are not ready to throw in the towel quite yet, we definitely do need to find a new direction in which to go. (The old just won’t do! This is becoming increasingly and alarmingly clear!)
While we can consider Mother Teresa, Gandhi and others of their ilk as great people, we do so because it is their way of thinking to save others and THIS is the most important component for the survival of our species and our planet. Indeed, if it can be shown somehow that the only way to save ourselves is to save much more — including the land, waterways, plants and animals (rather than just the people with whom we most closely feel kinship) on a global scale — or at least if we develop the mind set to do so, we may be able to avoid the worst outcomes that are looming from our huge appetite for fossil fuels and warring against each other to selfishly gain, for our individual groups, ever more resources, that we plunder in ever increasing amounts from the worn out natural world.
If we don’t soon realize that we are our own worst enemy, and, on account, make efforts to fight that enemy, there is little chance that George Bush or one of his clones will not put the final nail in the coffin of humanity. Furthermore, it will be us collectively that allowed one of them to do so.
It is sad to seem so pessimistic because in fact many of us have always been optimistic, in spite of reasons for the contrary. Optimism, however, is not a cure for our ills. However, realism may be!… We are apes, and, if we continue to act as such, we should not expect ‘God’ to come down and “save the day.” If that was a possibility, ‘God’ would have done so from the very beginning, and have prevented a lot of extreme misery, pain and suffering from happening. So, we must bring the best part of ourselves forward, that of ‘God’ in ourselves as some would call it, to better serve the world.
Anyway, this is enough doom and gloom “stuff.” We still have a chance, despite that it is getting slimmer all the time.
Yet, the solution might be, in the end, quite simple It just may be that ‘The more we take care of each other, the more the Earth will take care of us,’ or, to put it more succinctly, the more that we allow more life to live with a reasonable prospect for survival, the more Gaia may tolerate our presence and work with us to continue our individual species, a species that is just one of ever so many currently at peril from our all too human inhumane actions.
Whew!
Right now imagine looking at the reflection of clouds and sun on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. There are sailboats plying its waters and a slight breeze to guide them along its pristine shores… What a delight it has been to admire Creation, from wherever it originates. When seeing such sights, we can be reminded all the more of our duty to preserve the Earth so that it can be enjoyed in perpetuity by many more people, other animals and plants to come.
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Thank you Jean-Louis and Emily. The ending of your article strongly echoes my article written a few weeks ago entitled “Building Circles Of Community” at:
http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/53/3/
Unless we learn the necessary skills for taking care of each other, we have no chance of surviving. Thank you for your article which I have posted in the daily news archive of my site and which I have sent to my subscribers.