Alberta Oil Sands Project
When Will We Get It?
How many times do we have to be warned before we get the message? For more than 25 years scientists have been warning us about the dangers we are creating for our climate. This is a distinct danger, not only to us as human beings, but to all forms of life on our planet.
We’re not “getting it” because we aren’t seeing enough evidence yet. Sure, we see all the severe weather that is happening around the globe, but that only affects a few thousand people. Most of us are unscathed by these storms. We feel for those who are affected – we send them money or other forms of aid, but then we go right back to our usual ways of living, hoping the next storm doesn’t affect us.
Some researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology looked at how Earth’s plant life is likely to react over the next 20 or 30 years in response to our ways of life which are producing greenhouse gases. These scientists are predicting that wherever Earth is not covered by ice or desert, the plants will undergo major changes as some species will overrun other species to the extent that better than 30% of our plant cover will change in some way. These changes will be so drastic that humans and animals will have to figure out ways to adapt to the changes or relocate — if they can find a place to go. One question we should be asking is how much adaptation can we manage? Are there limits?
On top of the changing plant communities, their studies predict that the ecological balance between interdependent and often endangered plants and animals will be so altered that it will affect our biodiversity and further create havoc with our water, energy, carbon and other vital elements. These elements won’t be able to follow the cycles they’ve always been on. Ever think about what it would be like to try to live without as much water as we have available right now? Or how about our energy sources?
I say, “Think about it?”
Our greed and disregard for the future has caused us to have activities in our agricultural practices and our urbanization so that we are destroying our natural habitats – not only for humans, but also for plants and animals. When we change the climate on Earth, the plants and animals have to migrate to other places in order to survive. However, with the changes happening so rapidly now, we’ve begun to effectively block the successful process of migration. The plants and animals are running low on their adaptability – at least they aren’t able to adapt fast enough to keep up with our rate of destruction.
Again, this is something which isn’t so obvious that it has received our undivided attention, so when we read about another species becoming endangered or no longer existing, we don’t get too bothered by it.
The latest scientific reports coming out of the United Nations indicate we will have a warmer and wetter Earth, with global temperatures increasing 2 to 4 degrees Celsius by 2100. This is the same warming that occurred almost 20,000 years ago,during the Last Glacial Maximum — except this time it’s happening about 100 times faster. These changes will cause some areas of Earth to become much wetter than usual, while others will become much drier. I feel we got a glimpse of that over this past year.
These reports predict that during this century the most affected areas for dramatic change will be in the Northern Hemisphere high altitudes particularly along the northern and southern boundaries of the boreal forests.
But then , those amazing boreal forests in Canada are being demolished to satisfy our greed and grasping for oil which is being developing out of the tar sands there. They have to destroy the boreal forest to get at the tar sands. (See the photo above — that used to be boreal forest!!)
Of course, our even greedier politicians are pulling every trick in the book to get those tar sands sent via pipe lines to Texas. Look at how they tacked the pipeline approval on top of the bill to renew the Payroll Tax Cut.
When will we ever get it?
Peace,
Ron Rink