Biodiversity - the big symptom of climate change on tonight
- 18 Dec 06, 09:13 AM
What is biodiversity and why should we care? Tonights programme at 21.02 GMT ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 FM and LW - or here on this site - and for ever more. It's an uplifting and powerful programme. More about the programme below. Ever heard of the - it's a comic looking duck, appearing to wear spectacles. It's on the way out - and we should care.
Just heard a report from a remote frontier family that live on the North Slopes of Alaska that a lone pair of these extreme ducks were found shot dead earlier in the year, over their nest with young. The last in the neighbourhood. Not shot for food or feathers, just because they were there. have lived in this furthest corner of the world for three generations - and still going strong. Pioneer aviators, conservationist - a fontier familiy. The habitat is flat sea edge tundra - and climate change is on them: they talk of changing ice conditions, snow fall and the inevitable sea level rise grabbing their island. They see changes in the behaviour of animals around them....they talk of their first ever dangerous encounters with polar bears around their home. Spectacled Eiders live in this freezing wilderness. Having evolved super tog-value down feathers, clever arrangements to conserve body heat by not allowing warm blood to reach their feet, great divers as they hunt for shell fish - and fast fliers. And in this wonderful and stark place so they have evolved a dazzling array of behaviours and plumage patterns in order to compete for mates - together with their beautiful cooing call - with the loons this is the sound of the North Slopes. The few that bred near the Helmericks have all been senselessly shot. Jim, who does bird census's all the time, says they have gone. Where they still breed is ear-marked for oil exploration. Climate change they could probably handle, hunting and industrial development they probably can't. But the US Fish & Wildlife are aware (see above link).
Tonights programme has got a really informative interview with Edward Wilson - he's across the series, but he really explains what biodiversity is and spells out why we darn well should care about its demise. Howard delivers this interview and Gabrielle is discovering the riches biodiversity offers humanity in many other ways. Listen out for of Cambridge University who begins to help us to understand how we can start embracing climate change in modern conservation planning - he's also in episode 7, about conservation.
The Spectacled Eider is as Iconic as any ice breeding penguin - as any large mammal in Africa as any whale in the ocean. This simply dazzling bird which survives in a part of the world that others dare not tread is threatened by one thing and one thing only, man kind. Another species on its way, in EO Wilson's words, to being "committed to extinction".
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An excellent programme, and good to hear Wilson acknowledging the need for a spiritual dimension. He must have taken some of Wendell Berry's criticism on board.
Noting that ecology and economy are becoming "sister sciences," we must remember which is the eldest sister, in fact more the parent. Children often have too little respect for their elders....
xx
ed
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It doesnβt matter any more if you are religious or not the words of Genesis in the Bible regarding mankindβs commissioning to take care of creation are beginning to make profound sense to all. The stark contrast between how long science tells us biodiversity has taken to develop, with the incredibly short period it could take humans to destroy what they can not create illustrated in this episode, points at an undeniable moral in the Genesis tale. Despite the 7 day creation controversy no one can deny that the Bible exists and its now becoming clearer that we have the power to destroy what we can not create and are empirically arriving at collective responsibility to take care of the natural world. If only we had done so way back before science began to prove it our duty by indicating the terrible consequences of our neglecting this duty.
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The global environmental imperative
In the early part of the 20th century RMS Titanic was considered a pinnacle of naval architecture and technological achievement.
On April 14, 1912, Titanic raced towards her fate, warnings of icebergs were ignored, because this was the age of the biggest and the very best that industrialisation could build; proud and defiant, we were unsinkable.
But on that fateful Sunday evening at 11.40 p.m. the Titanic struck an iceberg. Mother Nature threw a snowflake in her path, and brought us back to reality.
The ship's bell sounded three times "...Iceberg, right ahead!" first officer Murdoch ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, which reversed the engines driving the outer propellers (the turbine driving the centre propeller was not reversible). This swung Titanic's stern away from the iceberg.
A collision was inevitable, and the ship's starboard (right) side brushed the iceberg. The watertight doors were shut as water started filling the five compartments - one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. This tipped the balance between staying afloat and sinking.
Two hours and 40 minutes later, after breaking into two, at 2.20 a.m. on April 15, she sank.
In the early part of 2000 the analogy has not been lost on me.
Then as now, we are driven by necessity, we forge ahead with little or no regard for the global environmental consequences.
Development for development's sake is the modern day credo. We ignored iceberg warnings, one of the first signs that all was not well with the global environment.
In recent decades glaciers worldwide have begun melting at rates that cannot be explained by historical trends. We are sacrificing the global environment on the altar of expediency, and now in the lifetime of our species we are facing unprecedented climate change. It is a marked and very serious event in modern history.
The majority of scientific opinion now agrees that it is our footprint that has brought about a perceptible shift in the natural balance, which is the global ecosystem.
It is no coincidence that as the globalisation of industrialised developments gathers pace fuelled by unprecedented technological advances, global warming increases exponentially!
And with other formerly stagnant developing countries coming on track, like China, India and Russia, this has exacerbated the situation further.
It is the historical innovative usage of the finite resource (petroleum) that has brought this monumental problem to our door.
There is a clear correlation between expediential petroleum usage and global carbon emission levels, which are a major global warming driving force.
Sadly, the very resource (petroleum) that fuels our global growth enhances the greenhouse effect that exacerbates global warming. We are caught in a desperate loop, a user cycle.
Practically every aspect of our lives involves using resource that pollutes.
We are addicted to pollutants, like the smoker who has been told to cut down the habit or it will be terminal, we promise to cut down, and then we relapse through lack of willpower, and clear understanding.
So as we approach crunch time, we look to the bridge for clear decisive action.
But there will be no clear decisive action, because of radical uncertainty that permeates through the whole debate on global climate change, at best there in no one on the bridge, and those that are raising the alarm are failing to relay damage assessment to a captain that is beset by problems that make a floundering ship seem trivial.
The nuclear resource production option is froth with danger now that we have entered a global terrorist debacle.
Putting long-term sustainable renewable resource measures in place may be the last act for a desperate planet, but it should be the number one priority for all nations.
Ignoring global warming is not an option; it is our only address
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Julian,
At the risk of repetition (I posted the link to Trefor on the 'Pope' thread)
Here is a wee .
ed
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Episode 5's link is dead!
Could you please put it on again?
Thanks for the quality of your programmes.
M.Obled, Paris.
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Radical Climate Change
Monday, 19 November 2007
By Philip Clarkson Naxxar
Radical Climate Change, humankindβs greatest global challenge thus far, has in recent months, grown from a whisper to a rumbling grumbling crescendo, all of which rides on the back of successive (I PCC) reports, that when summarized paint a very bleak future for all concerned.
Mr Brown the British prime minister makes his first major speech on the issue soon, he will underscore the need to act immediately to combat global warming and argue that green measures do not have to damage economic growth,
He will argue that, rather than holding back growth in the UK, efforts to tackle climate change offer economic opportunities in the development of new low carbon technology.
It is possible to be both pro-environment and pro-growth, he will say.
To hear Mr Brown tell it, there is money to be made as the planet hurtles towards the abyss
Its business as usual
He said βwe must show leadership and take the first and largest responsibility. That is why I am asking the UK's independent climate change committee to report on whether our target of a 60 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050, already greater than most other countries, should be even stronger still."
That notion is at odds with the realityβs of the situation, there is a scientific consciences on the horizon that gives the planet less than 12 years before a tipping balance is reached, a point of no return when all hope of redress is reached
Britain, like all oil based economies; depend on fossil full extraction and flow to fuel the machine that sustains their economies, and with a 150 year lead in period they are bound by a global political dynamic
Assuming we have the time, the will, and the global leadership to switch to alternative sustainabilityβs, there is still radical uncertainness by the major users of fossil fuel to deal with
There will also be reluctance by late comers to the table when told they must show restraint, by those that are still feasting
Given the time scale involved the only game in town is nuclear power as a power source alternative; this option is froth with danger now that we are engaged in a global Terrorism debacle, brought about by a collective unwillingness to coalesce and attend the festering soars that were historically initiated by western powers within the Middle East arena.
It will take a climatic event on a truly biblical scale to galvanize a cohesive global response for the mitigation of radical climate change
This writer believes that the future of the planet is assured. Our future, of all Dependent Species however is less certain
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