By having a reverence for life,
we enter into a spiritual relation with the world.
― Albert Schweitzer
The
rules of scientific investigation always require us,
when
we enter the domains of conjecture,
to adopt that hypothesis by which the greatest
number of
known facts and phenomena may be reconciled.
― Matthew Fontaine Maury
Do not ignore tornado alerts.
When the sirens sound, head for safety.
Don't expect a tornado will go out of its way
to spare you.
When the sirens sound, head for safety.
Don't expect a tornado will go out of its way
to spare you.
The big question is not whether climate change is a real
phenomenon or not. It is why do Americans tip-toe around the elephant in the living room? Why is it
that in a country that prides itself on its educational system, are there more
climate change deniers here than in many others countries?
In June 2014, Time
magazine ran an article by Michael Grunwald discussing a global survey Time had done about attitudes toward
energy and conservation. On almost every question asked, people in this country
were least likely to believe scientific evidence regarding climate change or
that anything should be done about it.
The survey reflected how beliefs (or denial) regarding climate
change consequences were reflected in people’s behaviors. People in Germany,
South Korea, Turkey, Brazil, and India were more likely than Americans to “turn
off the lights when leaving a room or power down their computers at night and
by far the least likely to walk or take public transit.” More people here were against
bike lanes and carbon taxes/carbon limits and were less concerned about
“polluted air, higher sea levels and almost every other problem the pollsters
asked except higher gas prices.”
Two recently released major reports on climate change support
the premise that we are big trouble. Meta-analysis of weather patterns and a
variety of other criteria show how much trouble we are in, if nothing is done
to address the issues. Grunwald reiterates this position, stating if action
depends on Americans “getting outraged . . . we are in trouble.” And our
children and our grandchildren are even more so
A cursory search on the internet describes how huge amounts
of money have been devoted to fostering the idea that climate change is a myth.
Much of this money comes from oil and coal companies or a tangled network of
organizations that funnel funds toward fostering the idea that the scientific
evidence is dead wrong. And a considerable amount of those funds have been
given to GOP legislators.
The reaction of many people is to shrug their shoulders,
before moving to other topics. While weather extremes have been battering the
county. One would think the immediacy of damage to one’s property would make it
personal – from the flooding of Manhattan due to Superstorm Sandy, rising sea
levels for Virginians with homes on the coast, high tide surges swamping streets
in Miami Beach, extensive drought in western states to a stuck polar vortex
over the center of the country this winter causing so much harsh weather. Doesn’t
anyone notice and ask why is this happening?
Part of the difficulty with the data regarding climate
change lies in confusing weather and long-term climate patterns. And in
misunderstandings about how science works. There are few facts in science. But that not mean that we continue to learn
things about the Earth and its inhabitants.
Good science does not begin with theories. It begins with collection of
data, analysis of the data, and then looking for patterns that lead to
hypothesis. Only the accumulation of data moves us from isolated phenomena to
hypotheses and sometimes to theory.
We know the Earth is round, not flat, as earlier people
believed and as later astronomers concluded from accumulated viewing the skies
with ever-sophisticated telescopes. No danger of falling or sailing off the
edge! Beautiful photos of Earth from space have given us precious images of this
breath-taking blue marble seeming to float in the void.
We understand that gravity (or some such force) causes
things to fall downward, not upward. Drop something and take note when it lands
on your foot. Likewise, we have learned how photosynthesis is the powerhouse
behind green growing things. It feeds us, gives us gardens for our pleasure
(and a continuous crop of weeds to be removed), and forests covering huge
areas.
Just as careful research on the conception of human life has
taken us beyond earlier beliefs of how life is created. Babies result from sperm penetrating an egg,
not from some mysterious process. Nor as my mother-in-law said, babies come off
the sheets.
Yes, climate change is not a fact – such as the roundness of
the Earth, the obvious action of gravity, occurrence of green plants, or understanding
where babies come from. But the data supporting the reality of climate change
is overwhelming.
Hence, the question: why is climate change in this country the
elephant in the living room. From my
own experience, I know that it is not possible to ignore an elephant’s presence
on the dirt road in front of you! Nor is an elephant likely to remain peacefully
in anyone’s living room.
Is avoidance of climate change a consequence of the enormity
of the problem? An elephant on the road
- who thinks it is her road – requires
putting your camera down and backing up quickly. Are the effects of climate
change so great that it is hard to get one’s head around the idea or a sense of
not having any options? Do many people feel an overwhelming sense of
helplessness and hope that humming a little tune is the best they can do, like
Winnie the Pooh,?
Or is it that people observe short-sighted big businesses being
in control and feel they have no voice in these company strategies and their generation
of products for profits? Is people’s frustration and anger at their government’s
paralysis so great that some of them join the Tea Party, which demands big
government get out of people’s lives and turn control over to local and state
government – a Tea Party ironically funded money-wise by the same corporations
that preach climate change denial.
Is it the belief that what one individual can do is not
enough to matter –even as those same people become better at recycling? Or are some people so short-sighted that they
figure they will “be long gone” before any predicted dire effects are manifest?
No facts here – just questions as to why the general public
is not been galvanized to address human causes of the destruction of life as we
know it.
Tornadoes and their paths of destruction are visual images
for both those who experience a tornado and those of us who view the results
either personally or through news media. However, most people have never encountered
an elephant in the wild. They think that humans are smarter (or more powerful) than
animals and they don’t recognize elephants have their own ideas about territories.
- until the massive animal comes charging toward them.
An elephant heading straight at you indeed is a sight to
behold!
