17 October 2013
Climate Change and Sun Spots
Let’s not get confused about what the issue is with global warming. No one looks at the evidence, not economists, not scientists (aren’t economists scientists?), not “deniers,” no one refuses to acknowledge that average world temperatures have risen over the last few hundred years, if not tens of thousands of years. The issue is what we should be doing about it, not what the cause has been.
Whatever the cause--CO2, sun spots, unexplained cycles--the trend is longer term than our perspective for the future of our children or civilization. If we know that the production of carbon dioxide emissions at least contributes to global warming, then reducing its exacerbation of a trend that may inevitably change the world for the worse should be a goal of modern science, politics, personal and corporate behavior.
It may be just hubris, but we can’t have a more estimable aspiration than to leave to our descendants an improved, not deteriorated world. It’s not enough to make it possible for them to contend with future problems through education and wealth; we must also do our best to prevent those problems from arising to begin with. Now that we’ve detected that climate change is happening and that the consequences will be dire, we should not be looking for whom to blame. Our generation will deserve blame if we do not use the resources that our forbearers provided us with to improve the quality of life on our planet.
Let’s not get confused about what the issue is with global warming. No one looks at the evidence, not economists, not scientists (aren’t economists scientists?), not “deniers,” no one refuses to acknowledge that average world temperatures have risen over the last few hundred years, if not tens of thousands of years. The issue is what we should be doing about it, not what the cause has been.
Whatever the cause--CO2, sun spots, unexplained cycles--the trend is longer term than our perspective for the future of our children or civilization. If we know that the production of carbon dioxide emissions at least contributes to global warming, then reducing its exacerbation of a trend that may inevitably change the world for the worse should be a goal of modern science, politics, personal and corporate behavior.
It may be just hubris, but we can’t have a more estimable aspiration than to leave to our descendants an improved, not deteriorated world. It’s not enough to make it possible for them to contend with future problems through education and wealth; we must also do our best to prevent those problems from arising to begin with. Now that we’ve detected that climate change is happening and that the consequences will be dire, we should not be looking for whom to blame. Our generation will deserve blame if we do not use the resources that our forbearers provided us with to improve the quality of life on our planet.
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