Global Warming for 40%
Bipeds have roamed Earth for about 2 Million years;
around 1400 A.D. there were about 370 Million humans; by 1900, we were 1 Billion.
in the past 100 years it has grown to nearly 8 Billion.
Europe and Americas (N & S) account for 1.1B; of the remaining 6.5B, only about 30% have “modern standards of living” (access to education, medical care, transportation, infrastructure, food, …).
“Global Warming” is the by-product of having modernized 40% of the human race. What then will be the consequences of bringing the remaining 60% of humans to our level of comfort (electricity, household appliances, heat/AC, cars, access to hospitals and schools, …)?
Our obsession with Growth is the root of it all. We hear it in almost every single news report, every day, around the world: “today the Dow Jones grew by…” “…the economy is growing at x%…”. But in a finite system (Earth and its atmosphere - our reaching into Space is for another post), resources are limited and the by-products of their exploitation and transformation remain in our Environment: we will not export Greenhouse Gases to other planets, nor will we bring martian corn or cabbage back to Earth. We plant (with machines) and grow the cabbage on Earth (with pesticides and fertilizers), harvest it and ship it (again with machines), wash it and wrap it in cellophane, and sell it in supermarkets. Each step requires an input (seeds, gas to power the machines, etc…) and the sum of all these interventions affects our environment.
Setting goals to counter Climate Change (as done by the Paris Accords or prior attempts) is futile unless DEVELOPED NATIONS STOP THEIR GROWTH. And even then, allowing “developing” nations/societies to catch up to our current standard of living, will amplify the heating trend that our own development has caused over the past 150 years (since the Industrial Revolution).
I suppose this defines me as a Regressionist - which is utopic and utterly impractical: in fact, illustrating my own contradictions. here I am using a computer to post blogs on the internet, after surviving the “second most invasive surgery” to keep me alive, at the cost of dozens of latex gloves, hundreds of feet of tubes for IVs, and on down the line. Still I try my best to Celebrate Every Breath, if only in homage to my amazing doctors and friends.
