While reading through Eaarth and seeing all of these statistics and projections it's really eye opening and for me shocking. For myself I look I've looked into the future and have pictured having kids. After reading this chapter, It's made me wonder if there's really fair to them. To have the joy of having kids, but leave them with problems worse than any generation prior to them have had to deal with. Global warming is a continuously getting worse with no end insight. At the time congressman Ted Kennedy said to congress "I cannot look into the eyes of my grandchildren and tell them :sorry, I...can't do anything about it". I've always imagined playing catch with my kids in the front yard. Watching their games, experiencing their childhoods, but at what cost? To leave them a planet with no future. A planet that we are slowing killing.
The projections of the future were terrifying, but what is even more terrifying are the events currently happening due to global warming. McKibben brought one example to attention of penguin colonies "I've stood in the middle of these rockeries, a hundred thousand mating pairs shrieking, their babies demanding food"(25). Another example is the increased heat and its effects on our bodies and crop production. "In 2003 France had the kind of heat wave that will become the new normal as the decades roll on. Not only did thirty thousand people die because of heat stress, but corn production fell by a third, fruit harvest by a quarter, and wheat by a fifth" (24).
"...if you took every government pledge made during the conference and added it all together the world in the 2100 would have more than 725 parts per million carbon dioxide, or slightly double what scientists now believe is the maximum safe level of 350"(20). With this being said it shows that we need to do even more than we have just attempted to do. It's not enough. We have to do even more than we have even imagined doing. We need to maintain the planet we live on. In order to do that we need to get everyone on the same page. Everyone plays a role in preserving the world.
"The Eaarth that we knew-the only earth that we ever knew-is gone"(27).
Nick I am incredibly inclined to agree with you. What kind of planet are we making for the next generation, and more importantly, what are we supposed to do about it now? I think the passages you cited exemplify the major issues we're having and continue to have everyday. I mean, just look at the temperature outside! 50 degrees during a Michigan January is unheard of. Really insightful post, good work!
ReplyDeleteExactly, what are we living for the generations after us. Are we really going to do anything substantial we keep telling ourselves that this change is slated to occur 100 years from now. There is no sense of urgency and McKibben does a goodjob of showing how much we need that.
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