Are We Ready For Climate Change?

The majority of Americans to not have proper savings, some do not have a retirement fund, and yet others do not even have health care. Many Americans are living month to month, paycheck to paycheck. This leaves many people more vulnerable when emergencies occur.

According to Red Cross data from 2003, it is estimated that only 11 percent of American homes have prepared themselves for a natural disaster. It was evident by the events that unfolded in New Orleans, LA, during Hurricane Katrina that both the civilian population and government institutions can be blindsided. The failures during Katrina were many, but the poor condition of the levees around New Orleans is a good example of a complacent attitude. The levees had fallen into disrepair because the funding had gone to other areas, and this came under the assumption that a hurricane like Katrina would not strike New Orleans directly.

There is a false assumption that life on Earth will continue the way it has through recorded history. The reasoning is, if the climate has been stable for the last ten thousand years, it should be stable for some time to come. This assumption leads people to over-extend the limits of reasonable growth and not be prepared for change.

However, data from many Earth sciences has been teaching the scientific community that a change in local, continental, or global environment does necessarily take hundreds or thousands of years. Search the science news web sites and you will find articles on a rift opening in Ethiopia. This rift has been predicted by geologists, because the tectonic shifting in the region will eventually open to the ocean, and Africa will have a new sea. However, this opening in the Earth's crust did not exist five years ago, and it already is of a substantial size.

So natural changes in the environment can occur quickly, but we have to consider the impact that humans are having on the global climate.

We are already seeing the effects of using resources by status quo. Clearing the Amazon rain forest for farming is decimating the region because the soil is poor quality, forcing farmers to clear even more rain forest after only a few years. Irrigation along the Aral Sea has made it virtually disappear in only 40 years. China's voracious appetite for resources of every kind, from fresh dairy products to building materials, has seen the cost of living surge in the last decade.

The examples above are tangible, visible effects of consuming Earth resources faster than the Earth's can replenish them. The climate of the Earth has been growing more unstable, and it is accelerating. It is clear human beings can no longer live as we have been for the last century. People need to change their attitudes about how they use their resources.

The global community has slowly been gaining awareness of climate change, but now it is time to take action. Awareness of a problem is not the same as solving it.

We must find solutions for sustainability of the global human population. Until we find the means to reverse the damage humans have caused to the Environment, or the Earth balances itself, we will be dealing with the “fallout” effects of industrialized society for decades to come.

So, are we ready for climate change?


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