Why I don't give a crap about Global Warming

With Earth Hour just around the corner, it is probably time for me to sit down and write out this article which has been fermenting in my head for some time now. No, I won't be taking part in Earth Hour again this year. Just like last year. Why not? In part because I do not want to support any activity which lets people think they can shut their lights off for an hour a year, dust their hands off, and tell themselves that they've done something good for the planet. Also in part because I was already pretty happy with Earth Day, thank you very much. But I guess for most people, giving up one day a year for the planet was just too much to ask, so they had to shorten it to an hour.

And just for the record, we actively do quite a bit to reduce our 'carbon footprint', even if I do not give a crap about it. In part on the odd chance that someone is right and it does matter, I don't want anyone pointing back to me 50 years from now and saying I was part of the problem, not the solution. And in part because reducing one's carbon footprint actually has an indirect effect on some of the things that actually matter. For example, we switched our electricity to Bullfrog Power, which means I choose to pay more for carbon-free electricity for my house (and this website). And while we are not vegetarian, we get the vast majority of our meats directly from local small farmers. According to Diet for a Small Planet, feedlot beef consumes about 25 times the natural resources as getting the same nutrition from plants. However, grass-feed free-range beef like the stuff we get, consumes only about 3 times! Still not perfect, but considerably better than the run-of-the-mill feedlot stuff you buy at the supermarket. We are a family of 4 - soon 5 - and yet we live in a tiny house just shy of 1000 square feet. We could afford a bigger one, and this tiny house is certainly challenging at times, but we manage because it is responsible. We have a car, but we want to get rid of it. My number one goal on my job front is not a "better career", but rather, to get a job close enough to home that I can walk, and finally get rid of our 1 car.

The big problem I have with global warming is that it is too controversial, and there is far too much room for naysayers to debunk it. Meanwhile, there is rock-solid, indisputable science out there for a whole raft of other environmental issues that need our attention, and nobody is talking about them because our attention has been diverted by this nonsense.

There are dozens of oceanic dead zones popping up all over the world, which are a result of the massive overuse of fertilizers. And yes, in case you have not heard of them, the name is a perfect description of them - nothing lives there because there is no oxygen in them. They are big, and growing. And more-and-more of them are popping up all over the world. Does that scare the shit out of you? Because it should! In particular because we only started using these chemical fertilizers after world war 2 because munitions companies needed a market for the chemicals used to make bombs.

Speaking of fish, check out the Guide to Eating Ontario Fish if you want a good shock to your system. This province is darned near the size of Europe, and our romantic notion is that it is somehow an unspoiled natural wilderness. But take a look at this guide which tells you whether or not you can eat the fish from every single waterway in the province. It is scary as hell. My boys and I go fishing quite a lot on our stretch of the Ottawa River, and while the Guide does say that adults can eat a very small amount of any catch every month, it also says that kids their age should not eat any! But it is not just big rivers like the Ottawa. And besides, even if it were, what the heck is upstream from us creating such toxic pollution? Next to nothing! Upriver from Ottawa is pretty much nothing but a vast wilderness! The poison is literally just falling out of the air. Part of the problem is the 10s of thousands of unregulated chemicals that are allowed to be sold in Canada. Because gawd forbid we should do anything that harms the economy. Even if we are killing our planet in the process.

Species are dying every day. Our oceans are massively overfished. Here in Canada we are well aware of the death of the cod fishery in the late 80s and early 90s. Where did all the cod go? We ate them all, where do you think they went? Last year there was the big 'mystery' of where did all the salmon go on the west coast of North America. Where do you think they went? We ate them all! Just like the bluefin tuna, which I see in the news now. 85% of it is gone! We ate it! In fact, I've read that the 85% figure is pretty typical for every commercial fish in every ocean of the planet. WE ATE THEM ALL!

Is there not a common theme here? We have a very, very serious issue with overpopulation. Yet the very basis of our society - of every single thing we as humans do - is "economic growth". And one of the only ways to achieve the sort of economic growth that these models are based on, is via population growth. Yet we've damned near eaten the planet to death, and it just cannot take it anymore.

And back to the basic premise of global warming for a moment. Why, exactly, does it matter if we conserve our fossils fuels? I can give you this one guarantee - under our current economic system, there is 100% certainty that we will consume every last drop of oil on this planet, and every last rock of coal. Every. Single. Last. Bit. It has taken us all of 200 years or so to consume as much as we have. In the case of oil it is about half of what is there. In the case of coal, probably less. But you can have 100% certainty that we'll consume it all. And the reduction figures that people are talking about are pretty small. Even the "big" reductions some people talk about are pretty small. Let us assume that at the current rate, we'll consume it all in another 300 years. I just pulled that number out of my ass, but it does not matter for what I'm about to say. Even the biggest reduction numbers we see are less than 50%. So let's say even if we reduced consumption by 50% it would still all be gone in 500 years for sure. But let's say by some miracle we were able to reduce consumption by some unbelievable amount like 90% or more. Well, we'd still have it all consumed in how long? 2000 years? 3000 years? Even if by some miracle we manage to make it last 10000 years, it still does not matter one iota.

The fact of the matter is that it took the earth a few hundred millions of years to tuck that carbon away beneath the surface like that. Whether we release it all in 300 years or 10000 years probably doesn't make the slightest difference for the people we hope will still be alive 10000 years from now. One way or the other we're going to consume it all in only a tiny fraction of the time it took mother nature to tuck it away for safe keeping. So the consequences are going to manifest themselves. Period. 10000 years from now those people are going to have to deal with a 100% release of that carbon. So we might as well start dealing with it right now.

And besides, when all that carbon was in the air, we still had thriving life on this planet. Every bit as much as we have today. It was just different life. Tropical plants everywhere, and oh, by the way, giant lizards thrived, too. So I would fully expect conditions to return to that sort of arrangement over time. Sure, it may not be the most comfortable environment for humans, but being self-centered like that is part of the whole reason we are screwing the planet up the way we are in the first place, anyway. Life will go on without us. But if we keep poisoning the planet the way we are in other areas that have little to do with global warming and carbon footprints, we may just manage to stomp life out completely from that poison. That is a different matter completely.

I believe that all this hoo-ha about global warming is just providing a convenient diversion for environmental nay-sayers, and giving them far too much reason to sit on their fat asses and do nothing. Sorry, but the status-quo is going to kill us all. Not just all us humans, but all us life forms on this planet. So let global warming happen. Let's adapt. Let's stop distracting ourselves from the issues that really matter. Let's get those 10s of thousands of unregulated chemicals out of the environment. Let's start talking about truly sustainable food. Let's take away any reason someone might have for sitting on their ass and nay-saying. Let's just stop talking about global warming like it really matters, because it doesn't. Let's talk about the issues which have no wiggle room for nay-sayers, so we can get everyone in agreement and start making a difference.

Global Warming : STFU!

And let's do it now, before it is too late.