The Climate Change Debate

So, as my readers know, I typically need to be inspired to write my next blog.  I usually have no idea what I will write until someone says or does something that sparks my passion.  I am passionate about many things…for this blog, the topic is Climate Change.

What got me going was something I read on Facebook.  A high school classmate wrote “One of my concerns about the climate change debate is there is none…debate.”  So here’s my take on that sentence.  There is no debate because it is not a topic up for debate.  By that I mean, climate change is a scientific exploration.  It is subject to trained scientists using the Scientific Method to explore the phenomenon.  You can’t debate the phenomenon anymore than you can debate if the earth is round or if there are harmful bacteria or if space is infinite, etc, etc.  You can debate political platforms or social mores or injustices, etc. etc.  But questions subject to the Scientific Method are explored by that method.  They are either proven or disproven.  Sometimes they are proven for a period of time then new findings emerge that alter the scientific findings and the scientists take off on another exploration of the new data.  

As a little reminder, the Scientific Method is illustrated below…

What is scary to me is that there are many people out there who no longer respect the huge field of Science and will argue scientific findings because they want to prove ‘conspiracies’.  Like the gentleman who recently made national news by setting out to prove the earth is flat.  This made the news on Nov. 11, 2017.  Mike Hughes of California wanted to prove the ‘conspiracy’ of the earth being round.

I don’t know, maybe I am naïve.  Being raised in a family where Mom was a nurse and I was around the field of medicine throughout my youth and then by shear happenstance I ended working most of my life in the outer boundaries of medicine, I grew up with a profound trust of medicine and science in general and a huge respect for scientists.   

In October 2012 I attended the two-day Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College in Petersburg, MN.  The topic that year at this annual conference was Our Global Ocean.  Speakers included scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Columbia University, Stanford University, Univ. of Connecticut, Univ. of Washington, etc. The conference was fascinating in sharing research findings of the impact of climate change on our oceans.  Speaker after speaker during those two days shared their findings in layman’s terms so that those of us in attendance could easily understand.  

What I remember is…..

•  Within the next 10 years the Great Barrier Reef will be completely dead (2022 only 5 more years)
• There is a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico which is hypoxic, meaning low-oxygen to the point that it can kill fish and other marine life.
• Scientists on the Pacific Northwest coast are working hand-in-hand with the fishing industry to reduce the impact of commercial fishing on fish populations.
• Previously undiscovered life forms have been found in the oceanic vents throughout the world

And there were many other learnings.  The experience of attending this conference reinforced even further my understanding of what climate change is doing to our environment and what the future looks like for our planet.  There is no doubt that human activities are the primary drivers of our environmental destruction.  Some will argue that what we are witnessing is the natural cycles of our planet.  There is a level of truth to this.  Unfortunately that fact is a minuscule part of what is transpiring within our climate.  

The breath of what is taking place is staggering:

• Our bee population is dying off at an alarming rate…no bees, no pollination, no food.
• Huge fields of plastics floating in our oceans impacting oceanic life 
•  Chemicals poisoning our food supply
•  Rain forests throughout the planet decimated for the sake of commercial activities
• Rising ocean levels due to the polar ice caps melting
•  Commercial fishing decimating fish populations
• And on and on and on….

We are the invasive species.  We have over-populated the planet.  Our lifestyles and demands on the natural resources have led us to the point of no return.  In this regard, I am a pessimist.  I have no hope that our planet can or will recover from the degradation that has been taking place since the advent of the industrial revolution.  And even if we all ended on the same page with regard to this topic and were in agreement,  would the world population really alter its lifestyles and expectations of what we must have to live to the extent that must happen to halt and reverse the degradation?  I think not.  As a species we are too selfish, too greedy, too self-absorbed and too mindless in our obsessions to alter our behavior to the extent needed.  No, as a species, we are on a slippery slope and already well down that slope.  

So, as those in power ‘debate’ the topic we are wasting time that we cannot afford to waste.  The Scientists have the answers.  They are a well-educated lot.  They have spent their lives being educated in their fields, collaborating with their colleagues, testing and proving their theories and where needed, adjusting those theories and continuing on with their exploration.  

All we need to do is listen and act on their findings.