19 October 2007
Behind the Global Warming Delusions
I’m surprised by Daniel B. Botkin’s facile dismissal of environmentalists’ concerns about ecological changes in our planet, in the October 17, 2007, Wall Street Journal. After all, what is causing vegetation in Manhattan to change and attract mockingbirds to flock to the city? And what is causing the sun’s radiant heat to increase and force the recession of Kilimanjaro’s ice cap? If climate change is not directly responsible for the effects of those underlying causes, perhaps human activity has increased their efficacy.
Yes, earth has been a continually changing home for its inhabitants over its billions of years of existence. Human civilization has only been aware for hundreds of years of the effects of industry on that ecosystem’s friendliness to life. And human industry has affected that system for, at most, 10,000 years, or as little as one/millionth of the time since the Big Bang.
Earth and its inhabitants have dealt with changes to its ecology for billions of years by adjusting to them. That doesn’t mean intelligent creatures such as we don’t have the right to feel compelled to preserve our continued existence. However, adjustment to changes in our environment is just as valid a response to them as trying to prevent or reverse those changes. People like Mr. Botkin should be in the forefront of man’s efforts to manage changes in our environment for our common good, and not use his expertise to deflate the urgency that “true believers in global warming” are bringing to that challenge.
I’m surprised by Daniel B. Botkin’s facile dismissal of environmentalists’ concerns about ecological changes in our planet, in the October 17, 2007, Wall Street Journal. After all, what is causing vegetation in Manhattan to change and attract mockingbirds to flock to the city? And what is causing the sun’s radiant heat to increase and force the recession of Kilimanjaro’s ice cap? If climate change is not directly responsible for the effects of those underlying causes, perhaps human activity has increased their efficacy.
Yes, earth has been a continually changing home for its inhabitants over its billions of years of existence. Human civilization has only been aware for hundreds of years of the effects of industry on that ecosystem’s friendliness to life. And human industry has affected that system for, at most, 10,000 years, or as little as one/millionth of the time since the Big Bang.
Earth and its inhabitants have dealt with changes to its ecology for billions of years by adjusting to them. That doesn’t mean intelligent creatures such as we don’t have the right to feel compelled to preserve our continued existence. However, adjustment to changes in our environment is just as valid a response to them as trying to prevent or reverse those changes. People like Mr. Botkin should be in the forefront of man’s efforts to manage changes in our environment for our common good, and not use his expertise to deflate the urgency that “true believers in global warming” are bringing to that challenge.
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