One of the great sadnesses, I have always thought, about humanity is that we are so relatively short lived and consequently we lack – through no fault of our own - a long term ‘race’ memory of how our world has changed since we became human. We have been fortunate to live in a relatively benign period for the last 8000 years or so but that is by no means the norm.
Taking an absolutely neutral line on the contentious debate that has been touched upon here, what cannot be denied is that sealevels have been much higher in the past and will once again be much higher in the future. With a large majority of the world’s population living within a few hundred feet of sea level we really do need to be considering whether it is viable to have so many of our major population centres close to the sea and what we should be doing to mitigate change no matter what the cause. As Kim says unfortunately we do not appear to be very good at this for all the political, economic and human nature reasons listed. I am not sure there is any answer to it and doubt that even a major crisis would be sufficient to change people’s views of the world.
Apologies for the pessimism. I am a rather happy person generally J
Richard
From:
Sent: 18 August 2013 02:12
To:
Subject: Re: [Geology2] Just a reminder....
Well to some degree that is true. But I disagree that we should have started in 1913 in order to avoid climate change. I don't mean to be divisive. Who is to say that the climate would have not become warmer any way? But I believe I am more optimistic than you in that I do believe more of us will give a real try to change things. And i think we will. Although you may be right and it will take some sort of crisis...hopefully not a big one. Allison
From: Kim Noyes <kimnoyes@gmail.com>
To: Geology2 <
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2013 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Geology2] Just a reminder....
We as individuals and descendents can survive this and some will but let's be honest, we as a civilization are not going to do what it necessary to turn things around because A) it's already too late as that would have needed to have started happening a century ago and B) our race always waits until it is too late to avoid doom because we don't like to be troubled and inconvenienced by that which is not an immediate crisis forcing change and by the time the crisis arrives it usually is too late and C) we are much too divided to agree on any solution were there actually one which there is not one that is not hugely disruptive and "painful" and hence we keep kicking the ball further along with a not-on-my-watch attitude and/or an attitude of complete denial.
On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 6:33 AM, Allison Maricelli-Loukanis <allison.ann@att.net> wrote:
This is an excellent group of very well educated folks that post informative and interesting articles. I greatly appreciate being a part of it. But... I remind you that if the world is ever to be saved from the greenhouse effect, it will be because regular non professional people are acting on the advice of experts. I am convinced it can be done. In WWII, people had victory gardens and rationed butter and eggs with food stamps. Gas too. In more recent times we have established recycling centers and while the vote seems to be out on the use of electric cars vs gas powered cars, at least folks are trying. Somewhere along the way we will figure it out. But the solution will have to be practical, within the means of everyone and show some positive immediate effect else people won't do it. This is the opinion of a humanities English major. Allison
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