ThinkingAhead: New study shows species displaced by global warming…

An article today in the New York Times on global warming’s results has me concerned.

And yet, I want to say:  Duh!

We’ve been hearing about global warming and the argument about its existence for so long that accruing results have been ignored.  As if nature would wait for us to agree there is/is not such a thing as global warming.

Or that we humans are contributors.

Duh!

Global warming is only the tip of the iceberg.  What happens if the earth rebounded RAPIDLY with a Little Ice Age?  All these species that have shifted north because of the increased warmth over greater surface area would be WIPED OUT.

The article quotes Dr. Richard P. Alley (a professor from Penn State who is an expert on climate not associated with the studies): 

"You'll have to change what you eat, or rely on fewer things to eat, or travel farther to eat, all of which have costs.”

Yet another resounding Duh?!, I thought, after that quote.  Yeah?  What’s it cost to shift all of our existing food production to latitudes south of current subtropical climes?  Even climate experts haven’t thought that far ahead.  But we need to even if they don’t; we can’t leave this to the experts.

If we don’t slow down greenhouse gas production by reducing petroleum usage (in every way, even plastics production!), we will accelerate the results of global warming.  It will amount to far more than just species shifting places.  We may leave little or nothing for our children’s children; we might even eliminate more than half of our own existing population.

Hope you're thinking, "Duh!" at this point.  And start doing something about it.

3:55:04 PM    comment []

Not really certain if it’s because I’m multi-racial/multi-ethnic, or perhaps it’s just the weather (another snow storm brewing)…but there it is:  I’ve been feeling a certain je ne sais quois today.

When I have this feeling I go through the list of hungry/sated, salty/sweet, hot/cold, this way/that way, trying to narrow it down, sort it out and label it.

Don’t ask me why I don’t just leave it at that, the conundrum that I am, why I don’t live a postmodern life and merely accept the chaos.  Maybe I just can’t process stuff if I don’t file it as it comes in, put the corresponding round peg into a round hole, or put the mail labeled “Smith” into the mailbox “S-T”.

Having run through sorting, I think I can narrow it down a little: I’m feeling Asian today.  Maybe even a little Pacific Islander, too.

Sure, you say, weren’t you just feeling Finnish a day or two ago?  Yeah, I was, but I’ve worked through it.  No longer feel like eating kala moijaka or pannukakku, don’t feel like braving the snowy cold.

I feel like calling one of my Asian friends and indulging in that patois sing-song, something not quite American English, gossiping about this and that, tossing around some colorful ideas like we do when we’re together.  (Not at all like the quiet stoicism and grayness I had when I was feeling Finnish.)

Maybe I’d even brave the cold to meet at the sushi joint.  Talk and laugh over Tsing Tao and edamame and miso soup.

Or perhaps I’ll just stay home and red-roast some pork for char siu, maybe whip up some manapua while I catch up on calls with friends.

Yeah, that’s the ticket.  No wet hair or sloppy, slushy boots or cold feet.  The smell of sweet-and-soy-pork in the air, yeastiness of buns rising before baking or steaming.  Sing-song talk-story laughing over phone.

What about you?  Feeling a little je ne sais quois, too?

1:59:16 PM    comment []