Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

It was a privilege this past weekend to participate in a conference at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, entitled: Gaia Theory, Model and Metaphor for the 21st Century.  It was organized by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and sponsored by a long list of organizations.

This was a truly impressive event, ‘high end,’ as one of the speakers described it, a space of learning, sharing,  and dialogue on a theory that increasing numbers of scientists, writers and more are embracing as a way to describe the living reality of our Earth.  The Gaia hypothesis stipulates an Earth whose biosphere is one living system, self-regulating to maintain the balance of energies and chemicals that keep it in balance and able to support the life within it.

It is that balance that we are upending with our human contribution of tons upon tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into our atmosphere since the dawn of the industrial age.

I could post pages and pages about the content of ths conference.  As you can imagine,  because of the crisis we are facing as a result of global warming and climate change, many of the speakers addressed this reality and what they had to say was sobering, depressing, frightening, but not without hope — not hope that we can go back to a nature we once knew and felt comfortable within, but hope that we can turn the transition from our fossil-fuel-based way of life in time to allow Earth to restore a balance in which life, and human beings, may still have a future on this planet.

A few factoids:

CO2 levels are currently 25% above the previous maximum of ~300 ppmv about 325,000 years ago.  We are currently at about ~380 ppmv, in human terms, uncharted territory.  The Earth has not seen a level this high in at least 800,000 years.  We are already outside the range of temperatures of the past 200,000 years.  At current rates, we will reach CO2 levels of ~621 ppmv by 2100.

Scientists seem to agree that ~450 ppmv is a critical threshold that we must not cross.  Surpassing that level would cause the Earth to warm by another 2 degrees C, past which point the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will become unstoppable.

The ocean conveyor belt that is a major climate control factor in the Earth’s gaia system has slowed by 50 percent in the last 10 years and will likely move south, altering drastically the climate of the northern hemisphere.

CO2 has a resident time in the atmosphere of about 120 years which means it will take that long for the CO2 we emit today to pass through the system and dissipate.  So warming will continue no matter what we do now — the critical question being whether we stop emissions enough in time to keep the warming from killing us.

Weather is already changing.  Persistent drought in the US southwest and stronger hurricanes are just two examples.  But so is this:  in the last 30 years, the amount of rain that falls over the US at the rate of 2 inches or more per hour has increased by 30%.

The average weight of female polar bears as dropped from 650 pounds to 500 pounds in the last 10 years.  Below 500 pounds, they will stop reproducing.

Now here is where it gets truly scary.  If we continue as we are, we face terrible consequences.  But demand for energy is going to increase exponentially over this generation as we add 2.5 billion people to the global population and countries with huge populations industrialize.  One speaker pointed out that continuing on this course with this rising demand could conceivably increase CO2 to ~1,000 ppmv by 2100.  This level could possibly release hydrogen sulfide from the oceans poisoning our atmosphere.  He noted that this is considered the cause of four previous great extinctions.

You know, I could go on.  But the point is this: that we change is urgent.  That we change immediately is absolutely necessary.

An expert on renewable fuels offered a ray of hope towards the end, saying we do have the technology right now to make it possible to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions (80% by 2050) by, FIRST AND FOREMOST, efficiency, which means reducing consumption beginning this very second, and secondly by using the varieties of wind, solar, geothermal, hydrology, the portion of power produced by nuclear (only for the duration of the transition), everything we have in a mix that can make it possible to meet human needs, reduce emissions, and get us through the transition to a new way of life in terms of energy and consumption post 2050.

You see the importance of this becoming the major project and commitment of our lives right now.   This is true meaning for the human journey.  This is purpose and mission, a reason to get out of bed in the morning.  This is what we do for our children and their children and their children…

I cannot believe that driving an SUV or buying a house with cathedral ceilings or putting in more roads to feed exurban development or buying stuff at the shopping mall is really more important to any of us than this.

I want to write more about this conference and will in future posts.