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Source: http://www.shiftinaction.com/discover/articles/shift11/seven_reasons_why_i_remain_an_optimist
7 GLOBAL WARMING CAN BECOME OUR GREATEST PEACE PROCESS.
Last but far from least, the greatest threat looming over humanity right now can be a positive opportunity. While I believe that we humans are responsible for some degree of the global warming now indisputably measured, it is more important to face its challenge than to argue about its precise causes. I know of no way we can reverse the process, now that a positive feedback loop is well underway. The warmer it gets, the more ice packs and frozen tundra melt; the more they melt, the warmer it gets, because diminishing ice packs reflect less and less heat away from the Earth. Because nature is a vastly complex living system, not an easily predictable mechanism, estimates of how much the oceans will rise and how long it will take vary. There will likely be another mini ice age in Europe, for example, on the way to greater heat overall, because of the threatened Gulf Stream’s very possible submergence. With most of our huge urban complexes located in coastal areas, even the most conservative scientific predictions for the end of this century imply that the necessary relocation of hundreds of millions of people must happen.
The good news is that people are at their best, their most peacefully cooperative behavior, in natural crises, and a crisis of this unprecedented proportion will command all our resources. We have some time to work on the international cooperation required to get those great cities uphill and to deal with climate extremes, but we cannot waste time getting this process underway.
Unsustainable literally means “cannot last, must be changed.” Global warming will bring this home like nothing else can, and it will provide us the opportunity to start over on a higher plane—literally and figuratively. I hope humanity at this century’s end will see global warming as the crisis that brought us together in peace at last. I imagine that the new housing, health-care, and education policies, economic activity, arts and entertainment, and ecosystem restoration will be sustainable and awesome examples of our artistic genius for elegant simplicity. And I see poverty erased in this process, as new win-win economics are implemented.
• • •
Thus have I gained and sustained my optimism as a humble student of our living universe, our living Earth, which clearly shows us the way out of our adolescent crisis into a mature global future. The sooner we create our vision of all we desire, set our intention to implement it together, and put our individual capacities into collective action, the greater our chances of success!
7 GLOBAL WARMING CAN BECOME OUR GREATEST PEACE PROCESS.
Last but far from least, the greatest threat looming over humanity right now can be a positive opportunity. While I believe that we humans are responsible for some degree of the global warming now indisputably measured, it is more important to face its challenge than to argue about its precise causes. I know of no way we can reverse the process, now that a positive feedback loop is well underway. The warmer it gets, the more ice packs and frozen tundra melt; the more they melt, the warmer it gets, because diminishing ice packs reflect less and less heat away from the Earth. Because nature is a vastly complex living system, not an easily predictable mechanism, estimates of how much the oceans will rise and how long it will take vary. There will likely be another mini ice age in Europe, for example, on the way to greater heat overall, because of the threatened Gulf Stream’s very possible submergence. With most of our huge urban complexes located in coastal areas, even the most conservative scientific predictions for the end of this century imply that the necessary relocation of hundreds of millions of people must happen.
The good news is that people are at their best, their most peacefully cooperative behavior, in natural crises, and a crisis of this unprecedented proportion will command all our resources. We have some time to work on the international cooperation required to get those great cities uphill and to deal with climate extremes, but we cannot waste time getting this process underway.
Unsustainable literally means “cannot last, must be changed.” Global warming will bring this home like nothing else can, and it will provide us the opportunity to start over on a higher plane—literally and figuratively. I hope humanity at this century’s end will see global warming as the crisis that brought us together in peace at last. I imagine that the new housing, health-care, and education policies, economic activity, arts and entertainment, and ecosystem restoration will be sustainable and awesome examples of our artistic genius for elegant simplicity. And I see poverty erased in this process, as new win-win economics are implemented.
• • •
Thus have I gained and sustained my optimism as a humble student of our living universe, our living Earth, which clearly shows us the way out of our adolescent crisis into a mature global future. The sooner we create our vision of all we desire, set our intention to implement it together, and put our individual capacities into collective action, the greater our chances of success!
