Feedback Wanted! An old friend from my rowing days told me she has read and enjoyed my blogs. I do not monitor traffic and therefore do not know who may read them. I appreciate any feedback, either posted comments, or emails to me at mjgillen100@hotmail.com.
My interest this summer has been on native plants and wildflowers of our beautiful Appalachian mountains. Wildflowers represent the ephemeral beauty of our world, often only discovered through macro photography. My eye is only able to see nature’s complexity when enlarged on my computer screen. This a world of individual flowers or small colonies visible only when one takes time to slow down and see.
In June I attended the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference at Western Carolina University, a gathering of knowledgeable plant specialists. They use the Latin terms, intimidating to me, a novice. They are a wonderful group of welcoming people who make all feel welcome. Among these knowledgeable folks climate change is indisputable fact. It is demonstrated by the ability to grow plants at the university that would not have survived 15 years ago and demonstrated by nurseries that have modified their plant catalogues to accommodate the changes. We are seeing more potent strains of poison ivy and more invasive plant activity as a result of longer growing seasons.
A week ago I attended a lecture by a noted meteorologist/climatologist. In her profession she gathered data and presented it. She did not advocate policy; that was left to decision makers. Her facts, though, made it clear that we have climate change and global warming, caused in large part by our carbon based energy production. We now spend more in the United States to cool homes than to warm them.Today the skies clear earlier at Asheville airport, the result of warmer nights that result in less cloud cover. 31 Alaskan native villages face relocation because of higher water levels and erosion. Engineers and architects are designing for higher ocean levels by building bridges higher. Design firms do not make such changes lightly, because the final costs are greater to their clients. These are only a few of the factual illustrations of climate change.
Yet, I continue to hear people deny climate change. They confuse weather which is local (e.g. a blizzard in late winter) with the broad impact of climate. Evidently, they listen more to the fake “news” of Fox, commentators such as Hannity, and paid spokespeople for big energy than to the reality. There is a tendency for all of us to deny what we don’t want to believe. I imagine the ancient Pompeians saying, “Non succendam!” as they looked toward Mt. Vesuvius.
Students of history are aware of societal collapses such as the Mayan civilization. Destruction of the rain forest and over-farming altered their environment. Rainfall declined. Crops failed. The people no longer believed their priests and leaders, and the political system collapsed.
There are immediate societal costs such as the cost of controlling invasive species, the health effects of respiratory illness and diseases such as malaria and fevers, and the impact on crop production, but we could face national and worldwide catastrophe.
We all bear responsibility. We are a consumer driven society, addicted to buying and using. I believe that awareness is at least a first step, one that could lead to positive changes. There is work on carbon recapture, but that is not economically viable (another myth of the climate deniers). What would be best is reduction or elimination of carbon energy consumption and a shift to renewable clean energy. Yet the United States remains a world leader in conspicuous consumption and planned obsolescence.
Is this a moral issue? Yes. The impact will fall first and foremost on the poor and disadvantaged. Do we as a society care? I’m afraid the answer is ‘no’. I think the wealthy and advantaged will simply use their resources to maintain their lifestyle. But as John Donne wrote:
No man is an island; entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.
Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.