By Carol Lucas
What would you do to save your mother? To what extent would you change your lifestyle if you knew your mother would benefit?
If your answer resembles something similar to, “I would do anything for my mom,” then listen up because in this case I am talking about Mother Earth. I am referring to the entity that gives us food, water, glorious sunrises and sunsets, and so very often a sense of tranquility. I could continue to list the thousands of amenities given to us, countless ones that we take for granted, but you get the idea.
“Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.”
– NASA Global Change Website, June 19, 2019
Note the date. Back then, and even more disturbing, decades before, the alarm bell was being sounded. But by 2021 we were consumed by another problem, up close and personal, that of COVID. In the midst of the pandemic our focus shifted, and while justifiably so, we sadly took our eye off the ball of fire above us. Given the fact that statisticians have stated that June of 2023 is the hottest month on record for the world, it’s apparent we need to refocus and address this head on.
Remember how we used to rely on the seasonal calendars provided by the Farmers Almanac and how accurate they were most of the time? Perhaps it is because of the unusual heat we have been enduring the past few weeks that I was motivated to take a look at statistics on the subject.
Certainly the daily news has consistently reported from various parts of the country the records that have been shattered. How many U.S. cities have suffered from triple-digit temperatures for a prolonged number of days? It is also not the U.S. alone that is sweltering.
While the heat index draws daily attention, it is the problems inherent with such that are causing people like myself to pay closer attention. Sadly we had to be pushed right up against the furnace to gain our undivided attention. And if we don’t do more than just acknowledge its existence, the next move may be being pushed into that furnace.
Admittedly some shifts are natural, but since the 1800s, human activities have become the central driving force. Perhaps a good place to look for an explanation of how we got to where we are is the population explosion.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the total world population crossed the threshold of 1 billion people for the first time. Since then, growth rates have been increasing exponentially, reaching staggeringly high peaks in the 20th century and slowing down a bit thereafter. The total world population reached 7 billion just after 2010 and is expected to count 9.7 billion by 2050. Today (Monday, July 31, 2023) the population is stated as 8.1 billion.
Now expand your thinking to include the necessities required to sustain that burgeoning number. Consider all that goes into “real estate development” alone when spaces are designated for housing, beginning with the clear cutting of trees. The energy needed for those homes and the transportation of that population, by land, and air, and sea, bring about additional complexities.
But even more crucial is the greater demand for food and water. With the warming of the earth comes dramatic ecological degradation. Droughts with subsequent soil erosion; wildfires; massive rainfall that produces floods; more intense hurricanes; rising sea levels as a result of melting ice caps and glaciers. All of these can be attributed to the effects of a warming earth.
And this doesn’t take into consideration man’s obsession with everything plastic. Inhabitants of the oceans are dying. Coral reefs in the past 30 years have been destroyed. There are some who project that one million species, not just those that live in the ocean, face extinction.
I read one supposition that said, “Right now, we need 1.7 planets to support the demands of earth’s ecosystem. I had to mull that around a bit, but my guess is that with today’s population, we need over half again what this planet is capable of providing. And with the anticipated increase of the world’s inhabitants, that figure will rise.
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss the brief, rapidly closing to secure a livable future.”
– International Panel on Climate Change
Every person should be terrified by the above quote. I don’t pretend to be a scientist, and I know there is no simple answer. Most of us can endure the very hot summers. Some, certainly not all, can probably afford the increase in prices that will surely come with diminishing supplies. But what about my grandchildren and my great grandchild? What will their lives be like?
I can only join the number of those whose awareness has been heightened and ring the alarms whenever and wherever I can. I won’t fall back on the untenable response of, “What about other countries?” That is an excuse we can ill-afford.
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”
