Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

Yes, that’s what’s happening.  While this stupid debate rages about whether or not climate is changing because of human-induced warming of the atmosphere, or will change, or how soon the change will come about — climate is changing.  And some of the effects are already severe.

Source: EarthWeek: A Diary of the Planet

In this week’s edition of EarthWeek: A Diary of the Planet, we find the results of a new study from James Cook University in Australia which shows that the tropical zone is expanding at a rapid rate — 300 miles over the past 25 years.  This also means that the more arid sub-tropical zones are being pushed further out.  Those regions hold some of the planet’s most fertile soils.  As they dry out, the impacts on food production and human health could be devastating, according to the report.

To see it in full, go here.  A little excerpt:

While some of the earliest signs of climate change were the warming of temperate regions and the melting of ice in the Arctic, a recent suite of studies now demonstrate significant changes in the tropics. Additionally, long term climatic measurements now suggest that climate change may be responsible for the expansion of the earth’s tropical zone…

The tropics currently occupy approximately forty percent of the Earth’s land surface and are home to almost half of the world’s human population and account for more than 80% of the Earths biodiversity. The majority of the world’s endemic animals and plants, which are found nowhere else on earth, are found in the tropics and are adapted to the specific climatic conditions found there. Thus, the implications of a poleward expansion of the tropical and subtropical zones are immense and the effects could result in a variety of social, economic and environmental implications…

Overall, climatologists working in this field are predicting that potentially the most important consequence will be the poleward extension of the subtropical dry zone. The study conducted by Fu et al (2006) demonstrates a robust pattern of warming in the mid-latitudinal region, from around 15 to 45 degrees in both hemispheres, indicative of a poleward shift of this zone. This poleward extension is predicted to lead to midlatitude tropospheric warming and contribute to an increased frequency of droughts in both hemispheres. Of particular concern are regions which border the subtropics and currently experience a temperate Mediterranean climate. Such areas include heavily populated regions of southern Australia, southern Africa, the southern Europe-Mediterranean-Middle East region, the south-western United States, northern Mexico, and southern South America – all of which are predicted to experience severe drying.

You see there is some bad news here — not just for far off places like Australia, but close to home.  You folks in the Southwest ought to be taking climate change seriously.  You ought to be leading the charge towards the end of the age of industrialization, the end as quickly as possible of our carbon emissions, and some serious work on ecologically appropriate living in areas of deepening desert. Of course, many of you are, and do please use this blog to tell us about your efforts.

Australia drought - Source: Center for American Progress

Part of what this means, of course, is that the persistent droughts in these regions — like Southern Australia, Southwestern U.S. and Northwestern Mexico — are not just sufferings and inconvenience of the moment but permanent — permanent climate change.

I am going to link to one more article (Study links drought with rising emissions) to emphasize this message — that climate change is not a future to be avoided but a current reality to address, and urgently.  Another Australian study provides evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to drought.

Last year, using sophisticated computer climate models in the United States, the scientists ran simulations with only the ”natural” influences on temperature, such as differing levels of solar activity.

The model results showed no intensification of the subtropical ridge and no decline in rainfall.

But when human influences on the atmosphere were added to the simulations – such as greenhouse gases, aerosols and ozone depletion – the models mimicked what has been observed in south-east Australia: strengthening high pressure systems and the significant loss of rain.

”It’s reasonable to say that a lot of the current drought of the last 12 to 13 years is due to ongoing global warming,” said the bureau’s Bertrand Timbal.

Australians are studying this a lot.  You may remember that parts of southeastern Australia were consumed by raging fires in the drought area earlier this year, with temperatures soaring at times above 120 degrees.  This is tough news for that country — and just the beginning.  But do keep in mind that what is happening there is also happening here for the very same reasons.

We reflect on this topic a lot here — that we are living on an altered planet.  We humans continue to alter its basic systems, the chemical makeup of our atmosphere, the soils and water with our toxins and engineering and industrial agriculture and population patterns, the biodiversity that made us possible.  We cannot keep doing this without paying a severe price.

So, one more time, this call to urgency.  We must create a new way of being human on this planet, and we must do it now.