Poor, Poor Earth
Poor, poor Earth, having to put up with us nasty humans. Kottke, riffing off of Elizabeth Kolbert’s article in the New Yorker, warns:
Much of the extra carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by humans over the past two hundred years is being absorbed into the ocean and slowly making the ocean more acidic. … Climate modeller[sic] Ken Caldeira believes that if humans keep emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at the same rate as today, by 2075 the world’s coral reefs will begin to disappear because their rate of natural erosion will surpass their ability to grow fast enough to keep up.
The basic idea is that extra CO2 (that’s carbon dioxide) is upping the pH level of the ocean, which will (the theory goes) destroy the reefs and God-knows-what-else. He finishes with this:
The truly worrisome thing about all this is that the ocean is an extremely slow moving machine and that once in motion, it’s difficult to stop or change its course.
Groan. Listen, I’m not going to lose one bit of sleep worrying about the Earth’s oceans, and I’ll tell you why: the Earth, too, is an extremely slow moving machine that’s been changing (evolving, even) for a very long time. Just because humans have the ability to feel guilty about the ways we’re changing it doesn’t mean we should.
Let’s think back to the first Apatosaurus, that troubling day when it took a gigantic, multi-ton crap on the Earth’s still-cooling surface. Atmospheric methane levels made a truly worrisome jump that day, and I’m betting that those countless Apatosaurus surprises, in their own way, helped create those beautiful reefs in the first place. (Yes, I’m aware of the possibility that the reefs predated dinosaurs.) Isn’t it possible that all that increased CO2 might have a brighter side? Like, say, increased plant growth, or even something less obvious?
Somehow it seems that there are more pressing matters to be wringing our hands about.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:28 am
The earth is a slow moving system? Brighter side of increased C02 levels? Tell that to the plant and animal life that didn’t make it past the anoxic event that ended the Permian era!
Is C02 changing the climate? Yeah, most likely, and our actions are an influence until we figure out how to best reduce C02 for our standard of living or comfortably reduce our standards. Would the current state of the earth be better maintained if we reduced C02? Yes. Will the earth continue on if we don’t? Absolutely — there is no doubt the earth would continue on without our changing anything and without worry.
Now, is it in our best interest to maintain the current state of the climate system in order to maintain oceans, food supplies, and other life sustaining systems in order to prevent inclement weather, food and fresh water shortages, famine, and war over resources?
Maybe there are more pressing matters than these, or perhaps the repercussions of guilt and adaptation aren’t worth the concern? Really, what’s the deal?