Page 51 - ECOlogic Book

wetlands, jeopardizing habitats and sanctuaries for endangered plant and
animal species.

“The climate changes we are now bringing about,” says Gore, “are likely to
dwarf the ones that caused the Great Subsistence crisis of 1916-19 . . . or
those that set the stage for the Black Death. Global temperature changes
are likely to be five times larger than the fluctuations that produced the
Little Ice Age . . . or the global climate change that led to the Great Famine
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of 1315-17.

While too rapid for ecological adaptation, these changes are perhaps not
rapid enough for human adaptation. It is a crisis that’s hard to see until it’s
too late to correct it. The things we can see and hear resulting from global
warming are too spread out, both geographically and time wise, to catch our
attention. By the time the crisis has brown to visible proportions, it will be
too late.

Because of this, and for many other psychological reasons, most people
have not yet absorbed the extremely grave implications of this crisis. Many
believe that global warming is “just a theory”, and that it is largely
controversial among scientists. What doesn’t seem to be widely known is
that some 98% of the scientific community is in deep consensus that a grave
crisis is at hand.

We are like the frog in the pot of water on the stove. If the pot is boiling
when the frog is dropped in, the frog will jump out. If the frog is dropped in
when the water is cool, and then the water is gradually brought to a boil, the
frog will boil to death.

The economic considerations are real. We are economically vulnerable at
this time. It would be misleading to say that no sacrifices would be required
to stop Global Warming. But the solutions are not beyond our grasp, as
some have suggested, nor will they necessarily be at the expense of jobs,
though some jobs may suffer.

There is every reason to believe that new jobs would open up as alternative
technologies are developed, though, sad to say, Japan, as in other areas, is
now leading in alternative technology, an area in which we once led the
world. “Turning to advanced energy-efficient and renewable energy sources,

53 IBID, P. 37.

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