[meinchewster]

Originally Posted by Pulmonata

As awareness of global warming and climate change soars, we are ever hearing apocalyptic phrases like "the earth is dying", or Prince Charles' "we have 100 months to save the world".

This might just be an argument in semantics, but is the earth really dying?

My argument is based on the fact that life on earth has flourished since life began, and that the entire evolutionary principal is based on change and adaptation. Throughout the ages of evolution, the earth has undergone massive changes in all aspects including climate. Geological climate change makes our current situation look like a minor blip. During the course of all of these changes, many species died out and many adapted, and it is to this that we owe the entire biodiversity of the earth today.

Despite this, climate change worries people (some more than others). This is for two reasons. Firstly, we can actually see it. The rate of change is such that we can actually observe the change in climate and measure its effects on the environment. Effects popular in the media are the melting of polar ice and increased extinction rates as species fail to adapt, classically though unfortunately illustrated by the polar bear, struggling to exist as the polar ice recedes.

As we observe these effects, the fear is that humankind, the pinnacle of evolutionary creativity, might not be able to adapt to impending environmental changes. This is a well founded fear; if crops persistently fail then food shortages will follow and this really could be catastrophic. In a worst case scenario, food would become so scarce so that the human population would not be able to sustain itself at today's level and crash to that similar of prehistoric times. If the environment changes beyond that to which we can adapt, then the legacy of most will be an evolutionary event, a punctuated equilibrium facilitated by rapid environmental change. Simply, life would again be a struggle for existence.

But here's the point, however catastrophic the impact of climate change might be on today's society, humans will probably survive in some form and life on earth will continue. The effects of climate change on humans could turn out to be negligible or it could be catastrophic. Either way, life goes on.

These are natural laws and rhythms observed throughout geological time, only now we are can we view these principals with a certain amount of dreaded self-application.

Mankind might be dying, but the earth is not.

I think it is a little more complicated a question than is the earth dying: the biggest issue is that although climate change and mass extinctions have been a constant in the earths history, we are standing on the epoch of possibly the greatest mass extinction and more importantly, this wave of extinction will be brought about by human activity rather than a natural occurance. The question is do we as a species have the right to impact on the diversity of life in this manner....of course not. However i doubt very much, even when presented with such a prospect, most people will be more than happy to carry on as normal, ignoring the impending catastrophe until, along with the vast majority of species on the planet, our fate will be sealed.