The human body is a reasonable analog for the writing
process. Sometimes there’s junk flowing
out of every orifice and at others you’re sealed up tighter than a can of
sardines without a key. This week is
very much the latter. So, being
absolutely void of anything interesting to share, I will write about everyone’s
favorite debate subject; global warming.
Hey… you get this for
free, remember!
If you read the news, especially via the internet, you are
more than aware there is a dearth of source articles available that claim to
interject some new fact bolstering the argument that if we fail to take drastic
measures immediately, rampant man-caused climate change will surely render our
planet uninhabitable to life as we know it.
Scientists always like to add that tag, “as we know it” to the word “life”. I conjecture that it is because they really
have no idea what life is and they’re just covering their bases. Oh, they can identify the parameters under
which life will operate. But if you ask
them, “How did it start?” Their answer
is always, and I commend them for their veracity here, “I dunno.” And if you do not know the origin of a
phenomenon, you surely haven’t got a handle on it, cosmically speaking. But I digress.
One of the stories I read this week offered that a dire
consequence from extreme climate change was the congregation of 35,000 walruses
on the beaches of the Pt. May, Alaska.
This unprecedented (by the way, who is counting the walruses?) gathering
is apparently the result of diminished sea ice.
As there are no bergs upon which to rest, they have been forced to lie
about on the beach. The article did not
intimate that any poll was taken amongst the walruses to query their motives
for coming ashore. Perhaps they just
grew tired of having cold tummies.
Another, unrelated story, proffered that the ease with which
ISIS was able to subjugate a swath of desert larger than Oregon in what used to
be Iraq and Syria could be explained by severe drought (not your every day,
run-of-the-mill drought mind you; but a catastrophic, globe-altering drought
fueled by the run-away green-house effect) that prevented farmers from
realizing normal crop yields. Never mind
that for the last four thousand years (yes, even before the Prophet), one
conqueror after another swept through the area establishing a temporary
dynasty, e.g. Babylonians, Sumerians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Britains, etc.
(I know that should be “the British”, but the prose just doesn’t flow as well
and if I can recall your attention to the opening paragraph, you know I am all
about the flow.) But I digress.
Or maybe, both examples are just among myriads that can be
attributed to Darwinian natural selection.
Maybe the walruses are engaged in a practice that will somehow cull the
herd. Perhaps the time is right for the
Semitic (look this word up, it probably doesn’t mean what you think it means)
peoples to discover a unifying ethos that will allow them to prosper (no matter
how dangerous to the rest of us). Allah
knows they’ve had enough false starts.
But to bring this to the point I want to make (finally!): We
cannot continue to believe our destiny as a species is dependent on climate
change. The universe has our number and
some day it’s going to make the call. If
you look out over the long term, we know that our sun will eventually run out
of fuel and doom our planet. That is, of
course, if we aren’t smacked by a big ol’ asteroid in the meantime. And don’t forget the bubbling cauldron of
volcanic death percolating under Yellowstone valley, overdue and just looking
for an excuse to exterminate us interlopers.
In understanding nature, one does not buck trends. And the trend has been 99.9% of all species
that have ever lived on earth are extinct (source). Do we really think that because we, (as a
species) have codified Darwinian Theory we are exempt from the law? So I say give the argument a rest. Take a cue from the walruses; relax and go to
the beach. But be sure to lather up with
sunscreen. There’s no reason to tempt
fate!
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