I think I can briefly simplify our climate plight: After learning the situation, Ethics is our salvation.
( Drat! that seems so simple, yet also desperate. )
The science is locked solid - with very grim scenarios. If the
world continues business-as-usual living, the climate models say
that full extinction is quite possible — and lacking any mitigation
- extinction is assured. Our serious efforts at adaptation may
permit survival but will not let our children escape serious
privation and suffering. This is a problem far more daunting
than mere politics can solve.
Progressively destabilizing climate warming is the perfect storm
for our civilization, and it is closing faster. Studies report
increasing rates of change that truncates the calendar - making
the decades more important than the century view.
Here is where we stand:
All this is no surprise. We carry the burden of having seen this
coming.
video: Dr James Hansen speaks at the the UO Law School about Moral, Political and Legal issues of Climate Change.
Richard Pauli
After ranting, arguing science, and projecting economics - our
discussion now is reduced to ethics and values.
First we might ask whether certain knowledge compels
responsibility to act. One can argue right and wrong - but
physical laws are absolute - even as we try to deny them.
Gravity pulls down even the skeptics.
Ultimately, the ethical argument of “What do we owe the future?”
trumps all other discussion.
When we know that actions today condemn our species to extinction
- then what do we do?.
When acts of the ignorant harm the future, then what actions do we
take?
The ethical values of our species will frame choices and enable action.
Oct 2010