I love Monbiot. Usually on the money but few listen, or act. Along the same lines as his article I found this longer but very intellectually stimulating essay by Manuel Valenzuela. What the hell are we doing to ourselves??
The Plague Upon Eden...
... Our civilization has, in the last three hundred years, set free terror upon the lands and waterways of Earth, her balance and harmony in serious peril. Human beings have scorched the planet’s fragile energies and mechanisms, unleashing consequences upon the globe we are only now beginning to understand. Through our mass introduction of carbon dioxide emissions we have opened up a hornet’s nest of natural calamities that we are, and will be, impotent to try and alleviate. Global warming is causing the planet to change rapidly in ways our mammalian minds cannot fully fathom; its intricate and delicate mechanisms are slowly but surely being manipulated by our primitive activities, its cycles are being altered contrary to the normal manifestations of time. Our dependence on natural resources threatens to spawn transformations to Earth’s energy and natural cycles that will give rise to the eventual downfall of man.
The signs of transforming energies are all-encompassing, clear warnings that what we are doing to the planet is altering mechanisms that have been in place for millions of years. Research and readings have found that carbon dioxide levels on Earth are the highest they have been in over 650,000 years. The poles are losing record amounts of ice every year that passes, their temperatures rising exponentially, their ice sheets melting and ice shelves cracking due to warmer climate, threatening to flood the world’s coastal cities. Today, for example, some islands in the South Pacific have begun to experience flooding of their coasts, forcing entire towns to relocate to higher ground. Greenland’s enormous glaciers have been receding, as have those around the world, from Alaska to the Alps, from the Himalayas to Patagonia. Once frozen tundra and permafrost in Siberia and Alaska have begun to thaw, releasing records amount of atmosphere heating gases. As a result of this thawing, tens of thousands of Inuit are under threat, their villages and towns sinking, their infrastructure collapsing. Snow levels are decreasing more every passing winter, meaning less fresh water in spring and summers.
The world is experiencing warmer winters and summers; migratory birds are becoming confused about the times of migration; spring seems to arrive earlier every year. Throughout the planet plants and animals are shifting their ranges and ecosystems to higher elevations and colder environs in response to the warmer temperatures being felt worldwide. Gulf of Mexico waters are experiencing an increase in temperatures, thereby spawning much more powerful and destructive hurricanes, in greater number, their season lasting longer than ever before. Tornadoes seem to be increasing in the Midwest of America; flooding is more severe worldwide. Ocean currents are being altered due to shifts in temperatures; proto-plankton, that most vital component of the oceans’ food chain, is disappearing; corral reefs are dying at alarming rates; the Gulf Stream is slowing down, threatening to make uninhabitable parts of the northern hemisphere, including Britain. Drought is increasing worldwide, rainwater is becoming more scarce, crops and farming are being damaged; billions of poverty stricken human will soon be forced to emigrate from their homes, eventually heading northward to escape disease, in search of water and food.
Earth is approaching a vortex of fluctuation whose point of no return fast approaches. However, instead of decreasing carbon dioxide emissions human interference in the climate system continues to escalate, seemingly with reckless abandon. In fact, energy conglomerates have invested millions of dollars to fight the few mechanisms implemented to fight global warming. They have bought off prostitute politicians in America, and are attempting to do the same throughout the world, lobbying governments to trash protocols and timetables. They continue to deny the reality of global warming, seeing it not as a threat to humanity but as a threat to their bottom line....
Read the rest at
http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2005/12/plague-upon-eden.html
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