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People like duality. Hitler is bad. Mother Teresa is good. Finger pointing is one of the best ways humans separate themselves from others, whether the identifier is a religious affiliation; a lifestyle choice; a cultural preference; a political view; or a sports team. Amazingly this need to belong to a certain 'side' funnels right down to the insignificance of choices like whether one drinks Coca Cola or Pepsi. Let's face it, life is easier if we can label things and then pick our camp. Then we know where we belong and depending on our choices the finger pointing can be as laid back or radical as we like. I remember I once worked for a boss who drank Pepsi. Being a Diet Coke drinker I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that I worked for 'one of them', loyalty to my brand was so fierce that I even lost some respect for my boss because he drank the 'weaker' beverage. Division is a force to be reckoned with, but that's a subject for the anthropologists to discuss, not me.
However, on the point of division, I have started to think that the need for duality is why things get messy when it comes to the subject of climate change. With some education it becomes obvious that there is no clear option to finger point at because it's not a black or white issue, it's a complex issue that desperately needs clarifying in straight terms and perhaps one day I will be lucky enough to come across that article (and will repost it here). Until then I must make do with my own research and rational mind to sift through all the information out there. I'm not a specialist on the subject, but I do spend considerable time learning about it and have discovered a few things that affect our climate beyond the human CO2 issue, things that hardly get any attention outside of science journals.
What is amazing is what the journals discuss is so interesting I can't understand why they aren't getting any press time. I have also read articles where experts talk about mother nature having the upper hand and what we are doing to the planet is insignificant compared to what she can do. And probably they are right. How can we really know the pattern unless we live and keep meticulous records for at least 14,000 years - the approximate time it takes between ice age cycles? All we can do is measure in terms of our own limited human scope, and even if we mass together all our historical information on the weather and the climate, we will only be able to gather up data from at most the last several hundred years. Worse, most of the information comes from a narrow slice of the world, since records were only kept in Europe and then later on in America. It is only within the last few decades that we have had any real global data of the climate so we are talking a drop in the cooling ocean when it comes to actual, relevant data. So that's worrying. How can we really, reliably know what is happening to our climate if we don't have any benchmarks to work against?
It's a tough question. And one that the anti climate change folks have jumped on and used against the people who are trying to address what is happening on our planet. But taking a step back, losing the need for duality and choosing a 'side', what happens if we forget about the bias and just consider the facts?
Today I got up and walked my dog, the morning which greeted me was beautiful, crisp and clear with a temperature around zero. The air was clean and fresh and all around me were blue skies and sunshine. As I walked, I pondered the question of climate change. It seemed ridiculous, given the lovely weather that there could be anything to worry about at all. The future felt safe and certain as I walked. The world won't change will it? Just like you, I have much at stake to lose if things suddenly go wrong. In order of vulnerability, I have a home, animals who depend on me and a partner I care deeply about. It's much to lose. Then I thought about the recent flood victims in Australia, and Brazil, and throughout the countries of southern Africa and steeled myself to go on, fighting the good fight of finding unbiased, honest information about what climate change really encompasses. It's one thing to jump on a bandwagon, half-informed and brainwashed by sensationalist media and shout about climate change without really understanding what it is, and quite another to make it your unpaid, full-time employment to quietly research and blog about it. I do this because I care about the planet. I also do this because I hope that somehow my blog will inspire others to see our world in shades of grey and take the time to inform themselves knowledgeably about this issue.
