JDHealingTimeOnEarth: 1992- Earth’s Warning Signals

[Admin Note: These days we call global warming - Climate Change. But nothing else has changed. John was working tirelessly on this from the very early days. It still is vitally important.]

Mauna Loa

One of the places that I love to go on this wondrous planet is Hawaii. My trips there help to keep me grounded in natural systems and how they work. The beaches, volcanoes and water falls are all precious to me. There is little to match the vision from the crest of Mauna Loa as mist clouds part and the vivid blue of the Pacific etches the line between earth and sky.

Charles David Keeling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_David_Keeling

It is ironic that in such an idyllic setting, an ominous sign of destruction could appear. However, in the late 1950’s scientist C. D. Keeling began a series of measurements of the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere above this mid-Pacific island. As the years passed, his results were alarming and convincing. He found the level of CO2 to be steadily increasing and questioned the possible cause(s). Because Hawaii is no industrial giant and widespread burning of forests is not common, likely contributors of CO2 do not apply. The evidence suggests that Keeling and his colleagues were actually measuring the effects of a global phenomenon rather than a local characteristic.

What we know about how nature works shows up again: Action taken in one place affects another. It’s all connected.

All of the life support systems on this earth are changing as a result of an accumulation of human activities. One sign is the increasing CO2 levels at a rate not previously seen. This global trend has now matured into a condition that may threaten the majority of life on the planet.

Carbon dioxide is not the only culprit. It is joined by two other dominant gases - methane and chlorofluorocarbons. Together they’re labeled “greenhouse gases.” These gases, as nearly everyone knows, affect the balance of energy in our atmosphere. The net effect of all this is global warming.

But chlorofluorocarbons are also at work in another way - deteriorating ozone in the upper atmosphere of our planet. Ozone, at this altitude, plays a powerful role in screening out ultraviolet light from the sun. With depletion of this protective blanket, ultraviolet light reaches the surface of the earth where it affects all life and degrades the quality of our ecosystems.

Recently I visited Chile, a country well within reach of the growing Antarctic hole in the ozone layer. Consequences from the hole appear to be growing as well. I heard about children being forced to wear sunglasses when they play outdoors. Reports include cattle having gone blind and a five-fold increase in skin cancer - all apparently related to this loss of protection from the sun’s rays.

Stephen Schneider, one of the most eloquent of the scientists pursuing the nature of these planetary threats, said that it doesn’t matter whether all of the facts are fully in and understood “We would all be better off if we acted as though they were.”

Stephen Schneider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Schneider

In Brazil this summer, a gathering of global leaders will meet in a cooperative effort to gain greater understanding of these and other planetary threats. Called the Earth Summit, and sponsored by the United Nations, this UN Conference on Environment and Development offers an opportunity to live up to what Stephen Schneider urges us to do.

UN Flag: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Summit

World leaders at the Earth Summit are to make policy decisions recognizing that the problems we face are neither characterized by national boundaries or political posture. This conference is designed to be important yet it may not yield the results that are needed. One major reason involves the United States.

It remains uncertain whether President Bush and U.S. administrative leadership will be full and genuine participants in the Brazil conference. Election year politics are probably complicating circumstances. Taking action to deter the progress of global warming and ozone depletion requires a commitment to the long term. A long-term view obviously does not always translate into short-term elect-ability. It seems to me that if we’re not stepping forward to lead, we’re actually in the way. (Bush did attend for two days.)

[John Denver attended as well.]