RULES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
National Geographic Magazine had a devastating article on "Global Warming". With scientific graphs and haunting photos, they examined the state of the Biosphere from 3 perspectives they called its Geo, Eco and Time Signs. The challenges we face are huge. We have to rethink our handiwork and how we treat our world.
In the part called Geo signs, I learned that the climate changes now occurring in a single human life span normally took place in a geologic age. The atmosphere's level of carbon dioxide, for example, is dangerously higher than it has been in thousands of years.
Because both the North and South ice caps are melting, changes in ocean temperature are affecting the overall climate in disastrous ways. In the week that preceded my reading the article, our home planet endured three hurricanes, a typhoon, several huge tropical storms were brewing and the thermal shock helped produce an earthquake and 2 volcanic eruptions.
The "Eco Signs" looked at the effect humans are causing other species. With examples like missing frogs from the Monteverde Cloudforest Reserve in Costa Rica, one of my own favorite haunts, they painted an alarmingly sad scenario.
Imagine a pristine garden high in the sky, all misty and lush, where a great diversity of life survives by constantly and gently being sprayed by the passing clouds. For millennia, Creation’s ideal mix of sun and nutrient rich water produced and awesome array of flora and fauna there. Then things suddenly changed; logging on the lower mountain slopes caused warmed air to rise up and push the clouds to higher elevations. That condemned many species - like Sapo Dorado - to die.
Everywhere, species are struggling to adapt to changing conditions but the lifecycles in which various creatures depend on each are falling out of synch, and that makes any hope of a future for them most dire.
From Time Signs, I learned an amazing aside to all of this: As Polar ice caps melt, science can see far into the biological past of the Earth. Fossils and other deposits are revealing the history of climate change, and how it affects the whole planetary system. Networks of researchers in every discipline are building models that push the current facts near and far into the future.
There is no question about whether climate change is occurring - It is. And it's no longer a matter of theory or of belief. There is no more time to afford the skeptics, fools and robber-barons who continue to sow disinformation. You can bet the fascists will feed their selfish gains to the detriment of us all.
Even if the Planet has fluctuated between ice ages and tropical climes before, this time it is very different. This time we know how our own works are the major contributing force. But this time we can do something about it. This time we can avoid the predictable catastrophe:
In the part called Geo signs, I learned that the climate changes now occurring in a single human life span normally took place in a geologic age. The atmosphere's level of carbon dioxide, for example, is dangerously higher than it has been in thousands of years.
Because both the North and South ice caps are melting, changes in ocean temperature are affecting the overall climate in disastrous ways. In the week that preceded my reading the article, our home planet endured three hurricanes, a typhoon, several huge tropical storms were brewing and the thermal shock helped produce an earthquake and 2 volcanic eruptions.
The "Eco Signs" looked at the effect humans are causing other species. With examples like missing frogs from the Monteverde Cloudforest Reserve in Costa Rica, one of my own favorite haunts, they painted an alarmingly sad scenario.
Imagine a pristine garden high in the sky, all misty and lush, where a great diversity of life survives by constantly and gently being sprayed by the passing clouds. For millennia, Creation’s ideal mix of sun and nutrient rich water produced and awesome array of flora and fauna there. Then things suddenly changed; logging on the lower mountain slopes caused warmed air to rise up and push the clouds to higher elevations. That condemned many species - like Sapo Dorado - to die.
Everywhere, species are struggling to adapt to changing conditions but the lifecycles in which various creatures depend on each are falling out of synch, and that makes any hope of a future for them most dire.
From Time Signs, I learned an amazing aside to all of this: As Polar ice caps melt, science can see far into the biological past of the Earth. Fossils and other deposits are revealing the history of climate change, and how it affects the whole planetary system. Networks of researchers in every discipline are building models that push the current facts near and far into the future.
There is no question about whether climate change is occurring - It is. And it's no longer a matter of theory or of belief. There is no more time to afford the skeptics, fools and robber-barons who continue to sow disinformation. You can bet the fascists will feed their selfish gains to the detriment of us all.
Even if the Planet has fluctuated between ice ages and tropical climes before, this time it is very different. This time we know how our own works are the major contributing force. But this time we can do something about it. This time we can avoid the predictable catastrophe:
10 rules for a prosperous life
- Discover a meaning to Global consciousness.
- Enliven your enthusiasm for the 3 Rs: Reduce - Reuse - Recycle.
- Be austere enough in your spending habits to get out of debt and build a surplus.
- Do work that you love and let others prosper from your passion.
- Pay yourself first - by saving a tenth of your net income.
- Keep a running journal of your dreams and wishes.
- Financially tithe to good works.
- Only buy shares for the long term and invest in well-managed, responsible organizations whose products and services you like.
- Forgive quickly; don't let emotional baggage slow you down.
- Live fully in the now… but as if you want to live forever.