By DAVID TAUB
Regrettably, too many powers in America believe that climate change is a conspiracy of the political “far left.”
The disbelievers in climate change also do not believe in Science. But science is the voice of Mother Nature, and it speaks its Truth loudly. We have learned the hard way that she is both a hardened taskmaster and also an unforgiving vixen. Scorn her to your regret.
Mother Nature’s messenger is the truth of Science; after all, as Tom Friedman tells us, Mother Nature is chemistry, physics and biology, all conflated into single dynamic phenomenon that controls all of life.
Today, Science warns us that about one percent of the world’s landmass is already too hot to support human life; no water, no agriculture, no grazing herds of domesticated critters, “no amber waves of grain.”
Already, the United Nations reports that more than 9 million people die of starvation annually.
Studies estimate that by 2070, thanks to Mother Nature with Science as her messenger, that as much as 19 percent of the earth will be too hot to sustain human life.
A National Academy of Sciences study predicts that the earth could see a greater increase in temperature during the next 50 years than it has in the past 6,000 years.
Compounding this disaster, by 2070 there will be over 10 BILLION folks living on spaceship Earth. Many billions of the world’s most destitute humans will have been living on that 19 percent of the land, which no longer can support them.
A fundamental evolutionary adaptation of humankind is to migrate when climate changes, from the time early Homo sapiens migrated out of eastern Africa, to the Asian migrants walking across the Bering Strait to populate the northern hemisphere, humans have migrated in search of milder climes and food.
When billions can no longer live where they are, where do you think they will go? Do you think they will go quietly? They will not.
Proof of this phenomenon already exists. Several years ago, our Defense Department undertook a comprehensive study of where and what threats would endanger our hegemony as we faced an uncertain secure future.
The number one enemy identified by this study was the destitution of human populations, millions without freedom, without food, without potable drinking water, living in densely-populated slums without sanitation and no heath care.
The United Nations warns that in the worst-case scenarios, the nations most affected by climate change could topple as whole regions devolve into permanent warfare. Indeed, many believe that was the cause of the Syrian civil war, which rages on today.
We better wake up to this undeniable reality, and wake up soon. There will come a time, much sooner than we expect, when Mother Nature’s patience will run out, and we will no longer be able to mitigate her anger.
No single nation, no matter its wealth and power, can even begin to address this image of Hell. It will take a coordinated effort by virtually all the world’s governments; incredible amounts of money, lots of joint political efforts and a willingness to forego many aspects of “our precious quality of life” for the betterment of all. If not, there will be no world at all.
Citizens of our fragile spaceship Earth must change our collective heads-in-the-sand denial of Mother Nature’s truth before it is too late. Some scientists believe we may already have crossed that metaphorical Rubicon.
Do I sound like the emblematic Chicken Little? I hope I sound like Chicken BIG! Wake up folks. Time sprints onward.
Climate change is a double whammy; maybe even a triple one. As we continue destroying wide swaths of earth, we simultaneously eliminate major ecosystems for all other life, lives previously living in those now too-toxic-to-live-in lands. Many species will die, some will become extinct.
But others will find new and fertile habitats up-close and personal to the ever more-dense populations centers of humans. Some critters, such as fleas, ticks and other small vermin, will simply hitch-hike along with human mass migrations.
New DNA studies of ancient teeth indicate that plagues killed our ancestors as long ago as the Neolithic period, at least 6,500 years ago. More zoonotic diseases, primary killers of humankind, many of them as yet unknown and unidentified, but deadly nonetheless, will invade the human ecosystem.
Plagues of Biblical proportions will overtake us, against which we will be helpless to fight. There will be just too darned many of us to successfully defend ourselves. One might wonder if the current s scourge of COVID-19 is a harbinger of things to come.
Mother Nature is an unforgiving taskmaster. Climate change deniers only get in the way of our understanding and acceptance of this reality. We had better quickly determine how to placate Mother Nature. Burnt offerings at the Temple no longer work.
Our very existence depends on finding the magic elixir, one based on science.
Axiom: “There is no educational value in the second kick of a mule.” Trust me on this.
“Well, all I know is what I read in the newspapers.” – Will Rogers.
David M. Taub was Mayor of Beaufort from 1990 through 1999 and served as a Beaufort County Magistrate from 2010 to 2015. You can reach him at david.m.taub42@gmail.com.
