Climate Change Science - a distraction?
*Peak Oil, Mass Extinction, Resource Depletion, Flooding of Coastlines.
Answer:
Permaculture: I think climate change science is important. We need people to find out and know about how our climate is changing and could change further. We need this knowledge in every area of life not just about climate change. Act locally but keep an eye on the horizon.
However, I personally have no scientific background whatsoever, to really understand enough about these issues to make a well informed decision, I would have to invest a lot of time and energy into studying the subject. In the meantime I have not taken action. I may miss the boat.
I have to trust what I see around me because I can not justify it in scientific terms. I am not saying I totally ignore what experts say, what I am saying is if their analysis of the situation is the same as I see then I do not NEED to challenge it. I MUST just take ACTION.
So for example if I see that deforestation is limiting wildlife habitat, changing the micro-climate, producing land which is over illuminated then to ME, ACTION is the most important.
The solution to deforestation is re-forest. Plant Trees.
The solution to the land fill problem is cut down on land fill.
The solution to the plastic bag problem is do not use them or produce them at all.
If I am wrong, and I may be, then at least the actions I have taken have added 'value' or benefit to my life and immediate environment.
Holistic how? Climate change isn't something we can treat biologically and spiritually. What we should be doing is creating and spreading technology that would mitigate the effects of global warming, like increased flooding and changed weather patterns.
Scientists do exactly that. But you need to look more closely at the issues to see it.
Taking the examples you mentioned--here's the response:
Peak oil (actually that's under resource depletion)--solving the CO2 problem eliminates this issue--because we won't be relying on oil.
Mass exxtinction--the only factor that currently threatens that is climate change. Deal with the CO2 problem, and you address this issue at the same time
Flooding of coastlines--again--the problem is the CO2 (specifically global warming melting polar ice
Recource depletion does need to be addressed. But if you want a holistic approach, take a look at the policy research that s gong on. That's where you'll find your holistic approach. You won't see it in teh scientific literature itself--scientific reports deal with reporting and discussing specific research, not with developing policy, holistic or otherwise.
If you want a holistic approach to global warming, see the IPCC reports, starting with this one. You'll need all the full reports, though, not the summaries, to get the holistic picture. And a lot of time to comprehend it. There's a reason it takes five years work by thousands of scientists to do this holistic work.
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.
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