But of course the sky is falling. The ground upon which we stand and upon which we rely for our peace of mind, is shifting under our feet. The Earth is not benign; it has been pushed and pulled and now it is responding in kind.
This is the mindset we have in the early part of the 21st century. And naturally, it only adds to the sense of insecurity and unease that people throughout the world are feeling.
And when we cry out we say
Arrgh, Disaster looms!
Well, that will push people along and you might think it is a laudable warning to get people to solve the problem of climate change.
The problem is that the argument implies that all the polluting we do is OK or at least not as important as climate change and that as long as the consequence of our actions is that we do not cause climate change, famine, total breakdown, etc. then we can keep on polluting the way we do.
And if you don’t think that way, there are plenty of people who.
I have a different argument on the ‘why’ of how we should proceed.
There may be a tiny bit of wiggle room for argument about exactly what effect that man is having on global warming. And there is room to argue about how the planet will respond in the medium or long term. (I say that because climate scientists constantly revise their models because the planet is more than the models of it.)
But what is not in doubt is that we are destroying the Earth and ourselves with pollution.
So I say don’t let arguments about global warming deflect from the fact that we should clean up the mess we are making irrespective of climate change.
To stop polluting the planet doesn’t or shouldn’t need the justification that we are facing climate disaster.
A tree does not need to justify its existence. We do however need to justify destroying it, whether or not at some point down the road the fallen tree will get its innocent revenge by releasing CO2 and killing the planet.
Careful housekeeping – looking after the place and not treating it like a rubbish tip – is simply good manners and a show of gratitude for the benefits we receive from the place we live.
This image is The Garden Of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. A very high resolution image is online on Wikipedia
Photograph Works 
