Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

It would be too easy to consign all this crazy weather we’re having to climate change caused by global warming. Weather is not the same as climate, and this country has always had volatile weather. The spring floods along the Missouri River are not unusual, nor is dry desert air across Southern California, since the area is, after all, a desert.

But there are some disturbing realities across the country that may or may not have to do with the fact that the temperatures of air, land, and water continue to rise around the world, and that we keep on having these record-breaking warm seasons. Is the pattern permanent, or like the 1930s and the era of the Dust Bowl, just one of those things we will endure until Mother Nature shifts yet again?

Southern California is set to endure the driest year ever recorded there — yes, ever. This according to the Los Angeles Times. LA has had four inches of rain since last July.

The TV scenes of the fires at Griffith Park are especially poignant for me, having visited there a number of times in my youth.

Meanwhile, the wildfires in southern Georgia still rage, now threatening to cross into Florida, a state that is already battling their own 200 or so wildfires. Drought conditions are so bad and weather forecasts so dire, that one official said the entire state of Florida is facing ‘”red flag conditions.” The Georgia fire, meanwhile, is the largest ever, having already consumed more that 160 sq. miles.

Another “largest ever,” to go with “warmest ever,” “driest ever,” these phrases that are getting to be like litanies in our daily lives.

Climate change due to global warming? Who can say — except that these freak weather phenomena that come at us now not one at a time but many all at once, accompany some other realities of nature that are linked to global warming and climate change, you know, things like warming ocean temperatures, a warmer Gulf of Mexico (one reason for stronger hurricanes), melting polar ice caps, 2-mile wide F5 tornados, strange species behavior, shifting migration patterns of animals, insects, and forests.

A few examples in recent news stories: warmer seas are contributing to coral disease, birds, whales and other species getting confused about their migration patterns, which threatens their very existence, loss of fish habitat off the coast of New Enland and reduced fish population because of warming ocean temperatures, temperatures of the soil are rising around the world at a rate only explained by global warming…

We could go on. Now can all of this be happening without weather being impacted? After all, weather is created precisely by these and other variables — temperatures of land and water that affect air flows, how much moisture is produced and where. The added fear is that these changes will create ‘feedback loops’ that will drive us quickly towards irreversible climate change.

Here’s what this means [from the ABC News website]:

In a feedback loop, the rising temperature on the Earth changes the environment in ways that then create even more heat. Scientists consider feedback loops the single-biggest threat to civilization from global warming.

I write all this to make a point — that Nature is one, a remarkable, complex system in which every part of it effects the whole. If you alter habitat, species will respond. If you alter climate, habitats will change. If you alter atmospheric temperatures, climate will change. if you alter climate, don’t expect the weather you grew up with. Mess too much with the habitats and life cycles of living species, and you might find we humans suddenly without the water and food that we need to live.

And this point — we are a species of Nature. We are not separate nor special. We are no less subject to changes, nor is Nature not subject to the changes we cause. We have entered dangerous territory here. Saving the planet is not just about reducing carbon emissions. It is first and foremost about reconnecting this human species to the Nature of which it is but one part. It is about rediscovering our place within the fabric of life, and then bringing the behavior of this species back into balance with Nature.

On that, our future life depends.

[tags] Griffith Park wildfire, California drought, wildfires in Georgia and Florida, weather and climate change, balance of nature, feedback loops[/tags]

Photo credits:
Associated Press
MSNBC