If Earth was only one day old, humans have been around for about the length of time it took you to read this sentence or about 3.5 seconds. Humans have existed for about 200,000 years, but Earth as a celestial body is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old.
In other words, Earth existed for a very long time without humans around and it will likely last a long time after us, as well. As geological and biological history show, life forms come and go but the planet endures.
It's from that context that we need to assess the agreement that emerged out of the Paris climate change talks. Some of the talk about taking dramatic action to "save the planet" is pretty ridiculous.
Never mind greenhouse gases.
All of the nuclear weapons in the world set off at the same time couldn't destroy the planet, according to the science geeks that have debated this topic on various websites. Sciencefocus.com says if they were all detonated at the same spot, the explosion would create a crater about two kilometres deep and 10 kilometres wide. No splitting of the world in two from such a minor dent but the nuclear winter afterwards would wipe out most, but not all, life forms that currently exist.
Now that the hyperbole about saving the world is out of the way, the conversation needs to come back to who might really be saved by reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We're talking about us, of course, as well as the species that are unable to adapt to the serious regional ramifications of climate change, which are different depending on location.
Before going any further, the current moratorium on publishing letters in The Citizen debating whether manmade climate change actually exists or not remains in effect. That debate is on our website for those who wish to indulge and there it will remain for the time being. Letters to the editor in praise or criticism of the Paris talks and the agreement that came from them are more than welcome.
The criticism here about climate change talks and ambitious international agreements is over managing expectations. Climate change is already happening. Even if humanity stopped all carbon emissions today, it wouldn't change a process already underway. As freight train conductors know, getting the train going and keeping it on the tracks is easy but stopping a kilometre-long line of fully-loaded boxcars, well, that's where the skill comes in. It doesn't happen quickly or easily. The effects from mankind's greenhouse gas emissions on the atmosphere and climate patterns took decades to have an effect and it will take even longer for reductions to make a difference.
That doesn't mean the countries of the world should do nothing, but the efforts may have limited or no impact on climate change, which happened long before there were billions of people spewing millions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane gas into the air each year and will happen long after homo sapiens are extinct.
On its own, climate change poses little threat to the overall survival of humanity. While billions of people will be affected by the negative symptoms of climate change, there are many others in many places in the world that may see benefits, such as increased rainfall and longer growing seasons. B.C.'s central interior is one such region.
The risk climate change does pose to humanity is from the resource scarcity conflicts that could arise. As Gwynne Dyer informed a black-tie audience in Prince George a number of years back, imagine India and China starting the Third World War as the Himalayan glaciers, a major source of freshwater for both countries, continue to recede. The two largest populations in the world going to war, with nuclear arsenals in their back pockets, could kill us all.
That risk aside, there are two larger and more immediate threats to humanity.
As bacteria and viruses resistant to antibiotics continue to evolve and as our species continue to congregate in ever greater numbers in cities, closely connected by rapid intercontinental aircraft, the chances rise of a new plague that will either eliminate homo sapiens or cripple our species so badly that we slowly die out.
Furthermore, the dinosaurs walked the Earth until a massive hunk of rock plowed into the world and thrust millions of tons of debris into the atmosphere, blotting out much of the light and the heat of the sun. There is nothing except a Bruce Willis movie to prevent such a thing from happening again.
We should all do our part to reduce our environmental footprint on the world, more for our grandchildren and their grandchildren than for ourselves. But we should also never lose sight of how small we really are as a biological organism in the life of the planet we reside on.
