Monday, July 09, 2018

"Is That Stable State Going to Be One That's Suitable For Humanity?"

I think of myself as a hybrid - "a person or group of persons produced by the interaction or crossbreeding of two unlike cultures, traditions, etc."  You know I'm a person or group of persons.

A Beatles fan (reveling in melody, harmony and enthusiasm) & a Stones fan (reveling in decadence, hard-blues, shambolic r&r). A Buddhist with deep Catholic scars and tendencies. An Optimist with streaks of Pessimism running down my back.

Up early Monday morning and the pessimist is in charge... I am thinking about Temperatures in Siberia:


"2018 has unfortunately been a prime example of global warming’s effect on the jet stream. And northern Siberia has been getting blowtorched by heat that refuses to quit because of an ongoing blocked pattern favorable for intense heat."

Nick Humphrey: "Once you reach certain tipping points, the Earth takes over and amplifies what we’ve done to make things go faster. These increasing heat events, these extreme weather events, that’s all a process of the Earth trying to speed itself up to get to a new stable state. Is that stable state going to be one that’s suitable for humanity?"

Aye. There's the rub. We human beings are pushing the planet to the extremes with our stupid and relentless poisoning of the environment. Some of us know better, but most of us don't seem to give a shit. Will we come to our senses in time? Is our time up? The pessimist in me thinks we are fucking toast. The optimist thinks a change of consciousness can happen in the blink of an eye. Pessimist: Maybe that blink's time has passed. 

What happens to human beings when the planet adjusts? Are we just like a viral infection? A colony of bacteria? A dangerous, ignorant pest that the planet needs to shake?