Yes, I like reading the research articles by AIMS, and GreenBean's sublime argumentative debates too.
Which resonate with my believe that environmental changes don't just happen in a vacuum, for no particular reason, or without predictable consequences. Our task is to observe, measure, understand, predict and correct our action as best we can. So as to preserve our niche in life on this planet. and all the life forms we need and or appreciate for their beauty.
It seems we now produce much more airborne CO2 than the natural world can handle. The forests absorb about 20%, the oceans absorb about 40% and the rest goes to raising the CO2 content of the air we breath. up from 280 to 385 PPM now over the past 150 years. the air was stable at 280 ppm for the preceeding 10,000 years. we as human beings, able to speak and write and reason, (at least a little), have only been at that level for the past 10,000 years. or about a nano second compared to the 4.5 billion years age of the earth. which doesn't forbode well for our longevity compared to the adaptive ability of let's say: blue/green algae. we could very well be a flash in the pan, much thanks to our own propensity to degrade the vary ecosystem we need to survive in. as CO2 rises, ocean PH declines, and becomes more acidic, which reduces stoney corals, clams, snails, shrimp, .... calcarus structure animals, ability to form their shells and structures to grow. reefs will die.
As GB points out, very slow changes over epochs has been the norm, which allows lifeforms time to morph and adapt over time. The current rapid changes preclude genetic drift by destroying species before they have time to reproduce many generations and morph. which... simplifies the ecosystem. It can and will recover, over time, much time. but not necessarily with us in it. and that, i think is the concept most people don't understand or appreciate. Even though we control a large chunk of our own fate.
Just remember, things like cars, powerplants, and other manmade forms of combustion, and pollution are not part of the natural ecosystem. but have the same effect as catochlysmic events such as super volcanic erruptions, and asteroid impacts, to name a couple, which happen in a short geological time frame.
remember 1816, the year without a summer? caused by the 1815 mount Tambora erruption, a small event, compared to a yellowstone scale erruption. It COOLED the planet several degrees by its emissions of sulphuric gases and soot. a Sharp change but temporary. which means if we cut our net emissions, we too can slow warming, or reverse it. but that is a very big IF. even maintaining current CO2 levels will continue to raise the temperatures for a long time until it reaches stability. we need to reverse the trend a little bit. and that is a very big problem when we live in a world based on fire, combustion, CO2 production.
So theres a lot of work to do. To save the reefs, and our way of life. Lest we treat the environment, in our search for "More" much like the Captain, In Walt Whitman's famous poem.
http://www.poetry-online.org/whitman_o_captain_my_captain.htm
Or perhaps we can save ourselves with Red Green's Posum Lodge's Prophetic monthly meeting opening slacker sanctum:
" THE MAN'S PRAYER "
I'm a Man,
I can change,
If I Have to,
I Guess....~?~?~?~?
