Robert Waide: I think the most important trend we’re seeing is change – in many cases, unprecedented change. Change principally driven by modifications of global climate, by changing land-use, and by gain or loss of species.
Robert Waide is director of the Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) Office . Scientists at the Network’s 26 study sites collect data on environmental trends around the world.
Robert Waide: I think the most important thing that we are focusing on, and we need to be concerned about, is this issue of tipping points.
That is, ecosystems can be stressed to the point in which they tip over to an entirely different kind of system, in other words, a system which has different kinds of behavior and provides different kind of ecosystem services. So ecosystems that once provided clean water and air could stop providing those things.
Robert Waide: It’s these tipping points that we’re not confident we can predict yet, because they are dependent on the interaction of many factors.
Still, scientists believe the ‘tipping’ of ecosystems will have largely negative effects.
Robert Waide: So the open question is whether humans will understand and appreciate these changes, and try to effect changes in their own behavior to try and head them off.
Our thanks to:
Robert Waide
Long-Term Ecological Research Network
Our climate is fine. We do face some daunting challenges though. Socially, economically and politically. Do we want to be a free people? Do we want to be responsible for ourselves? Do we want to be able to see what our own potentials can create?
Or, in the converse: Do we want to have a nanny government? Do we wish to have our lives scripted? Do we want to live at the whim of a bureacrat?
These are the real problems.
Our climate has changed forever. Right after the forming of the earth, the earth was extremely hot and there was likely no life. As the atmoshphere cooled, it was very high in CO2. No animal could have survived. Plants with photosynthesis and sea creatures with calcium carbonate shells developed and over many eons, the carbon dioxice was removed from the atmosphere and fixed in the mantle of the earth as coal and limestone. If you believe in the biotic theory of oil, you may include oil and natural gas as well. Long term, the trend for CO2 has been down. However, fossil evidence shows that there have been periods when the CO2 levles increased to around 2000ppm. Without an increase in temperature.
The little ice age destroyed the Viking civilization. Then it warmed again and life once again flourished. Life willl adapt, folks.
If a “tipping point” occurs, it won’t be mankind at fault. It will be the sun flaring or dimming, an asteroid or comet hitting earth or a super volccano erupting. That will throw things into a tizzy! We may or may not survive something like that! Now, here are some questions: If man isn’t here to observe it, will it be an environmental disaster? How will no one define it? And, will it matter?