Environmentalism isn't about the environment

Many environmentalists are sending the wrong message about climate change. Protecting the environment for its own sake is wonderful but that won't motivate most people to change anything in their lifestyle. The most significant danger from our over consumption is that we may change the planet to the point where we can no longer live on it.

Is it really so hard to believe that we are changing the planet? There will be over seven billion of us before the decade is out most of whom are depleting the planet's reserves with no thought of exhausting them. We aren't hurting the earth, claiming otherwise is giving us more credit than we deserve. This planet has been around for billions of years, it has survived asteroids, comets, been encased in ice, and even survived a collision with another planet. There is nothing we humans can do that will in any real way damage this planet. However, collectively we are contributing to the most significant human achievement of all time, changing the chemistry of our atmosphere.

Global warming isn't as simple as the weather getting warmer; it may cause ice ages, droughts, snow storms, hurricanes, every form of extreme weather will be affected by a hotter climate. Extreme weather isn't the only threat, as usual many come from us. As sea levels rise and people begin to starve around the world war may break out over resources. When international tensions are stressed from mass migrations environmental concerns may fall by the wayside exacerbating the problem further. These avoidable disasters may cause the extinctions of untold numbers of species, including us.

We humans think we can survive anything but what happens when daily temperatures reach 150 degrees? Being the most intelligent species on the planet has allowed us to flourish but it may also be what causes our extinction.  It would seem silly to any onlooker if someone took bricks from their wall to build a fireplace, one brick may not topple the wall but eventually it will fall. Each incremental increase in greenhouse gases is another step towards our own demise yet collectively we refuse to change. We're in a hole and still digging.


The most urgent point in all of this, even if we stopped all greenhouse gas production right now incredible damage has been done and it may continue on it's own. We have to clean up our mess before the planet can return to normal, the good thing is the world already knows everything it needs to know to solve this problem.