AgentR11 wrote:Around Alone, Northern Hemisphere Version.
From rainforest revival and green technology to social changes, the age of humans is not necessarily a one-way ticket to eco-disaster, argue three new books
OPTIMISM is in the air. Some environmentalists are shrugging off their perennial doom and gloom, and daring to think the possible – that we are not done for. After half a century of despair since the publication of Silent Spring, The Limits to Growth and The Population Bomb, the green shoots of ecological redemption can sometimes be seen between hard covers. It is a welcome relief.
In On The Edge, Claude Martin, former director of environmental group WWF International, remembers that back in the 1980s, forest biologists like him warned that the loss of pristine rainforests was driving tens of thousands of species to extinction. Yet it wasn't so. His magisterial review of the state of those forests concedes that the "pessimistic projections", which assumed that species would be lost as fast as forest area, have proved false.
Most species in these habitats survive even in the face of rampant deforestation. Puerto Rico lost 99 per cent of its primary forests but just seven bird species, and today has more species than before, he says. And thanks in part to reseeding by alien species, old forests are starting to grow again.
Last year, fewer countries were tied to legally binding international targets for cutting carbon emissions than for almost two decades. Even so, a record 60 per cent of new investment in electricity generation was spent on renewables. Fixing climate change, Stern says, is no longer a "zero-sum game". There is no burden to share; played right, everyone can win.
The trouble is that many people haven't noticed. Too many governments pump trillions of dollars into subsidies to prop up uneconomic fossil-fuel industries, and then turn up at international negotiations convinced that every cut in carbon emissions they concede will be a defeat for their national interests. Stern doesn't say so, but it may be that the language of burden-sharing at the core of UN climate talks is becoming part of the problem rather than the solution.
In End Game, academics Anthony Barnosky and Elizabeth Hadly eloquently lay out the ecological perils we face, deftly showing how they might segue into food and water shortages, disease, resource wars and mass migrations. "Life would go on, but there would be a lot more losers than winners," they write. But they, too, conjure good news from the crisis. Their subtitle, "Tipping point for planet Earth?", refers not just to nature's potential implosion under human assault, but also to positive tipping points in human responses.
Like nature, we can fight what once seemed inevitable. As the authors explain, family sizes have become radically smaller, defusing population bombs; rich societies are reaching "peak stuff" as people spend spare cash on "experiences rather than things"; agriculture can become far more efficient; and recycling can both end pollution and stem resource shortages.
Political will has produced major changes for the better before, they note. Slavery mostly ended in the 19th century, and the 20th century brought a green revolution that doubled global food production in a generation. Now we know the challenges for the 21st century; we just need to act.
Apneaman wrote:Optimism, like pessimism, is an emotional state of mind and neither one has any bearing on the laws of physics, chemistry or biology. I look at the data and changes I can clearly see from paying attention and not one bit of it makes me feel optimistic, but I'm open. I will just need to see the proof. Something like the laws of physics magically reversing themselves and/or a vent hole opening up in the sky so the CO2 can exhaust into space and then a super wizard who can stop the planetary inertia that is already baked in and restore the oceans Ph. If anyone actually drops any cash on those environmental cargo cult fairy tale books, please bump me hip to the happy facts I missed. I bet they are just full of words and phrases like "we must" "we need to" "political will" "Policy change" "by 2100" "technology" (not yet invented) and If If If if if if...
Humanity to keep tweeting positive slogans until point of extinction
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/envi ... 5062299489
onlooker wrote:Sorry to say these positives referred to are just sporadic trends in a cascading and accelerating set of doom trends. As AP stated optimism and pessimism are just state of minds we should endeavor to dispassionately analyze the facts and data. Upon doing so many here realize that Earth is in bad shape and getting worse. Until I see a complete halt and reversal in the way humans are acting rather then talking , I see no reason to be optimistic.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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