The deniers of human impact on the world will object to evidence because it won’t comport with their bias, and their bias conforms to, and supports, their private investment interests and tribal identities on the political spectrum. It is true that the causes of warming are complex and follow from more factors than human activity. That is no excuse to do nothing. Were it true that carbon release due to peoples’ activity was not the cause of warming, global warming would be no less real. Heads in the sand (even oil sands) do not presage well for civilization to manage adaptation or correction intelligently. The most sapient designs of nature are not likely to save us without our effort on massive scale.
One needs to recall that the world’s great forests are the lungs of the world. The ocean is like liver and kidneys. The forests are vastly depleted by man whose cornfields do not compensate. The ocean is deeply and seriously disturbed as evidenced in many ways. I fear that psychologically, politically and culturally, mankind is too fragmented and self-conflicted to respond creatively and survive the vicious effects it has inflicted upon itself almost from the beginning.
Human survival has always depended on non-sequitur, that is, leaps of judgment and decision beyond strictly scientific finding or determination. Fellow stands in a jungle clearing. He wonders, is that stripy thing a tiger? Is it hungry? Is it running toward me? Though it looks to be quickly getting closer, that may be an illusion. This requires more study. I shall call up a committee to see if I’m in danger. I need complete evidence and the final observations are not yet “in.” Owowow-o-o-ooh! aahh-h. . . This fellow also was never sure the sun would rise tomorrow. He had not probed past nightfall. Maybe our sister planet moved between earth and sun, blocking light and heat. It may stay put so that no matter how the earth revolves, we can never see daylight again.
Let us not to the marriage of defective brain-users admit impediment. Our defects stem from wishings counter to reality. Wishful insistence on facts being other than as they are is a sure path to posthumous judgment upon us of insanity. The willful demand for paying attention to facts we favor, at the expense of other relevant factors we view dimly, most likely marks the source of our most madly foolish behavior. “I’m certain she loves me totally and will not object if I initiate vigorous love-making right here on the front lawn at noontime before lunch. Oh, no, Officer! It was not like that, at all! I’m simply dumbfounded that my sweet neighbor says she never cared a fig for me. Well, when I think of all those times we borrowed cups of sugar from each other or talked about our favorite movies over coffee-break, downtown! She was just leading me on.”
When the role is called up yonder, none of us will answer, no matter how we paint our murals on the wall. You outgrew the Easter bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and Ayn Rand. Suck it up. Our kids are going to disappear the way we will, so what’s it matter if we take it easy on ourselves by doing nothing, now? Que sera, sera. Later, baby! Unless, of course, you want to wake up and get to work on your (our) problems.
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