It's true, age changes things.
Dec. 29th, 2006 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jebbypalBoth the recent news about the artic melting and ice shelf break today as well as the penguin documentary I saw two nights ago on PBS has me very thoughtful. Mostly, I can't get over what a difference a decade makes in my opinions.
My parents always said it --- you'll change your views as you get older, and to an extent, it's true. I'm both more and less cynical now and slightly more empathetic, though I do my best to block it a lot because it tends to fuel my depression more often than not. Still, once again, they were right.
Ten years ago, I wasn't positive global warming was occuring --- after all, I'd lived through OK droughts before and knew that seasons varied etc. Of course, we didn't have as much data as we do now either. Still, it didn't really matter to me -- rather, I was almost cynically rooting for global warming etc to knock humans all off because god knows we'd screwed things up enough and didn't really deserve any more chances.
Now though, god. Is there a way to get us out of the way and reverse things? The other animals on this planet don't deserve what we're doing to them (okay, maybe the monkeys. I've never cared for the canabalistic little monsters, myself. Gorillas, not too bad, monkeys and chimps, gah, there's no doubt we're more closely related to them). The images of starving and dead penguins from Antartica when a fragment from the Ross Ice Shelf broke off and then hit the shore again and made mountains that the penguins couldn't scale to get to the oceans was truly horrible. The knowledge of the impact of the loss of penguins on seals is scary. Not to mention how the extra ice cover etc may impact the growth of plankton -- or even what will happen to ice fish if the artic oceans warm too much?
The plight of polar bears is visible, but it's all coming soon to us as well. Not the next five years, but the forecasts look gloomy world wide in the next 50 or so. America's bread basket moving to Canada. The middle of the country becoming desert most likely as well as rising sea levels. The amazon turning into desert. Melting permafrost in Siberia.
*shakes head* Assuming we don't nuke ourselves and most of the rest of the life off the face of the earth in the meantime as we squabble over decreasing resources, it will be scary.
Okay, this is all too depressing. Going to lj-cut the above.
My parents always said it --- you'll change your views as you get older, and to an extent, it's true. I'm both more and less cynical now and slightly more empathetic, though I do my best to block it a lot because it tends to fuel my depression more often than not. Still, once again, they were right.
Ten years ago, I wasn't positive global warming was occuring --- after all, I'd lived through OK droughts before and knew that seasons varied etc. Of course, we didn't have as much data as we do now either. Still, it didn't really matter to me -- rather, I was almost cynically rooting for global warming etc to knock humans all off because god knows we'd screwed things up enough and didn't really deserve any more chances.
Now though, god. Is there a way to get us out of the way and reverse things? The other animals on this planet don't deserve what we're doing to them (okay, maybe the monkeys. I've never cared for the canabalistic little monsters, myself. Gorillas, not too bad, monkeys and chimps, gah, there's no doubt we're more closely related to them). The images of starving and dead penguins from Antartica when a fragment from the Ross Ice Shelf broke off and then hit the shore again and made mountains that the penguins couldn't scale to get to the oceans was truly horrible. The knowledge of the impact of the loss of penguins on seals is scary. Not to mention how the extra ice cover etc may impact the growth of plankton -- or even what will happen to ice fish if the artic oceans warm too much?
The plight of polar bears is visible, but it's all coming soon to us as well. Not the next five years, but the forecasts look gloomy world wide in the next 50 or so. America's bread basket moving to Canada. The middle of the country becoming desert most likely as well as rising sea levels. The amazon turning into desert. Melting permafrost in Siberia.
*shakes head* Assuming we don't nuke ourselves and most of the rest of the life off the face of the earth in the meantime as we squabble over decreasing resources, it will be scary.
Okay, this is all too depressing. Going to lj-cut the above.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-29 06:43 pm (UTC)I've always been a big environmentalilst. I've always felt that humans had a big impact on the environment and was continually frustrated that most people didn't seem to care. And while it's nice the more people recycle now and are a bit more cignisant, it's still not enough and I find myself getting frustrated about that.
And the whole global warming thing... I've seen it to be true for a long time and now that there is irrefutable truth about it, I feel like "Finally! Are you people finally getting it?!"
But I think my karmic burden is to be constantly frustrated by the lack of awareness on the part of humans.