CLIMATE CHANGE

I want you to be an informed Blue Marble cruiser because like it or not, were all “on the same boat” for this trip. Do you remember some of Rod Serlings opening monologues for the TV show “The Twilight Zone”? We’ve modified one just a bit for future climate change postings”.

“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call, the Green House Gas Zone.”

Much like the Twilight Zone, I fear the answers to the climate change debate likely lie in the “middle ground between light and shadow”. As for who is “right”, I don’t think either camp in the climate change debate can stake a claim to being armed with a full and complete understanding of the operation of the Marble’s climate engine. While there is consensus that climate is influenced by a number of complex drivers, it is the presumed impact of man’s role that has generated all the angst. Otherwise, no one would care.

Now, everyone needs to appreciate that once we humans abdicated our roll as mere tenants on the Marble to become the landlords, the neighborhood has never been quite the same (in a bad way). And, if you’re a purist wanting everything to be the way it was before man stumbled upon combustion, you must accept the fact that the human race will be in damage control in perpetuity along with a hefty price tag. We environmental types have a fancy name for that process: “sustainability”.

Here’s the climate change situation as of this writing. One camp is in full throttle appealing to the “pit of man's fears” with images of a global catastrophe. Good bye Miami, Bangladesh and the Maldives (really, keep an eye on the Maldives).

The other camp, possessing the “summit of his knowledge”, has historical data suggesting that climate is influenced by the Marble’s inner workings, celestial mechanics and the Sun and what we’re experiencing today is nothing more than the typical ebb and flow of our climate and largely unrelated to man’s activities.

There’s even a camp out there that advocates that temperatures today might not be the “best” for the existing biosphere and that some other climate may be more appropriate.

With all that in mind, let’s distill this down. We don’t know whether we’re coming or going but when we get there, we won’t be sure if it’s the right place.

Hey, how human is that?

So what does the future hold? I’m opting for being at the mercy of the various galactic comings and goings. You can take that to the bank. Well, let me reconsider that "bank thing" for a moment ..................

The signpost up ahead, the Green House Gas Zone.