In June, a team of prominent scientists published a long article in Nature. It concluded that people have so disturbed the operations of the planet that it's nearing—perhaps within decades—a “state shift” to a new biological paradigm unlike any human civilization has ever encountered.
The data suggests that there will be a reduction in biodiversity and severe impacts on much of what we depend on to sustain our quality of life, including, for example, fisheries, agriculture, forest products, and clean water. This could happen within just a few generations.
What’s surprising is not the science. It’s the endless lack of reaction to it. I didn’t hear any reaction at all from the nation’s clerics. The whole first page of their sacred text is about nothing but creation, the fact that God made everything around us, pronounced it good, and told us to take care of it.
Which we manifestly haven’t done. We haven’t exercised careful dominion, we’ve just trashed the place. All those creeping beasts and birds of the air? We’re wiping them out at a rate accomplished in the past only by asteroids. And in the process we’re doing more damage to the least among us than any other people who’ve come before.
What explains the mealy-mouthed silence of our moral leaders? I have no idea.
Climate change—the biggest thing ever to happen on our planet—strikes me as a test not just of whether the big brain was a good adaptation, but also whether it’s attached to a big enough heart to matter. At this point the scientists have done all they can to speak for the brain; our religious leaders have done precious little to make the case for the heart.
The full article is available here
The full article is available here
