Why I Worry about Global Climate Change

This Sunday evening I was playing with my two small children in the park. It suddenly hit me why I am so concerned about climate change.

I think as we get older and we slowly come to grips with leaving this world, our legacy for future generations becomes more urgent. I feel a deep need to ensure that the joys and treasures I have enjoyed in my lifetime should be available to future generations. As we sever the strands of the web of life one by one, the entire web is threatened. No one is truly certain about the magnitude and the meaning of the climate-related effects we are unleashing on our children's future.

And I think that my concern is not limited to the impacts upon humans. I think it is really important that there be frogs, that there be bees in the future. That there be polar bears and snail darters and Hemlock trees. It is my prayer that future generations live in a world that is as rich in life and in nature and in beauty as our own, hopefully more so.

It is my sorrow that we as a culture seem unwilling to awaken to this obligation. And so I also pray that future generations will be able to forgive us our shortsightedness, and find a way to live rich, fulfilling, and responsible lives, in whatever world they find themselves in.

Comments

kimc said…
I heard a guy on the radio who was talking about the worst case scenario of global warming (we usually hear the best case, not the average), and his prediction was that the population of the earth would be down to 1/2 billion by 2027.
However, there are great leaps forward in alternative energy on the horizon, that no one is taking into account.
December 05, 2011
Louis Merlin said…
So, I hate to ask, but what is the worst case?
December 05, 2011
kimc said…
Louis -- You don't think losing 6 1/2 billion people is bad enough? I assume that also included losing a lot of our ecosystem. Lots of plants and animals can't move north as fast as the heat is moving, and some can't make it even if they could because they also respond to day length.
December 28, 2011
Louis Merlin said…
kimc - what I mean is what would cause the population of the earth to go down so dramatically? Hurricanes? Flooding? Droughts? Mass extinctions? All of the above??
July 10, 2015
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