by Aaron Escobar
The World’s New Jungles:
[Via Ed cetera]
Here is an interesting story. The New York Times reports that much of the land in tropical countries is reverting to nature after having been farmed or logged. The article neglects to say that the same thing has happened over the past 75 years or so in the United States. A few years ago I took a car trip through New England, and I was surprised to be driving through miles and miles of forest–not what we in Washington state would think of as a real forest, because the trees were so small, but still a forest. Much of it had once been hardscrabble farms. They had been run out of business by more economic farmers in other regions.
What this tells me is that the environmentalist line about the world being in crisis is oversimplified. It doesn’t mean the greens are totally wrong, or even largely wrong. They could have much truth on their side–but still, they have been giving us only part of the story, the part that suits them. We get a cartoon movie, like Wall-E–which was an entertaining movie, but with a message that this New York Times story undercuts.
Anecdotes and stories do not substitute for facts and data. Using Wall-E as an argument abut the reality of global warming is like using Murphy Brown as an argument about single parenthood. They are stories we tell ourselves, and while they may spark some discussion on matters, they do not substitute for reality.
The reality is that the Earth will be around regardless of what we do. and so will life. No matter what we do or don’t do to the climate. The biosphere has survived eras where perhaps 90% of all life died off and yet here life still abounds. There have been times that every land animal over 50 lbs in size diasppeared. But life came back. After millions of years.
The point is not anecdotally that trees can grow somewhere given the opportunity. It is not that some form of life will be happy in an environment. It is not that Wall-E represents anything other than a cautionary tale.
It is that we have 6 billion people on this Earth because of a certain climate; one that readily provides life for most of them. An altered climate may allow trees to grow quite well in some locations, but the climate would still be totally unable to sustain human life at the levels we see. Rainfall patterns can change. Fresh water availability can change. The growing regions can move northward meaning that growing seasons are altered. Drought can enter regions used to water. Tens of millions of people could die. Those are the possibilities.
The best places to live today may be changed completely. The worst places may become hell holes.
That is the disaster people should talk about. Not whether trees are growing in New England. Or a cartoon robot represents the arguments of environmentalists.
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