Time for some straight talk about climate change

The climate of our planet is changing. As members of the science community we have a unique ability and responsibility to both understand the current state of the planet and communicate that knowledge to the world that we live in.

We all need to read this report very carefully ...

Link to Climate Change Panel

If we turn our society upside down and go back to a nearly agrarian society we in Canada can possibly make a 1% difference in the global trend. What will happen in the future will be determined by 1) the United States 2) Europe and Russia and the emerging capitalist states of China, Indonesia and India. Incedentally the deforestation in South America and in Indonesia will also impact the environment but in different ways. It is also true that those regions and countries will also face the most dramatic negative impact of climate change.

That does not mean that we should not make changes (energy efficiency, water conservation etc.), it means that we have to be pragmatic. First of all, we are on a trend that will not statistically change in our lifetimes. As Bruce Willis said in Armageddon "Call Earth and tell them it's bad news". Secondly, climate change will actually benefit some countries and that is a message that simply is not getting out.

What can we expect here in Canada?

Changes: People in the world are going to have to move or die either due to rising ocean levels or drought as the deserts increase in size. The will be population shifts or deaths that number in the millions ... tens of millions ... hundreds of millions? Where will they turn?

Invasions: we will be invaded people dispossessed by climate change and by flora and fauna that would not normally be able to live in our climate (get ready for cockroaches and bedbugs in the near future).

Surprises: the Earth is a complex exercise in chemistry and physics. To my observation the climatologists have been surprised every year in the past decade by a new environmental dynamic being revealed or changing. Most of these changes have to do with homeostasis which is simply the application of LeChatalier's Principle to the environmental equilibria that govern or planet both microscopically and macroscopically. My guess? There are things about heat exchange in our planet that we are currently not aware of ... but soon will be. This will mean surprising climate swings as the planets equilibra swing back and forth. The only question in my mind is if the time period for these equilibrium changes will be short (decades) or long (centuries).

To get back to my purpose. Climate change will benefit the Northern Countries (Canada, Scandinavia and Russia). They don't talk about this much but we have these big empty countries that have been kept empty because the winters make it economically impossible to live here. That is going to change. Get ready for it. Sir Wilfred Laurier was wrong by a century. It was not the 20th century that belonged to Canada it will be the 21st. Our greatest challenge will be to deal with our neighbour to the south as their central desert gets bigger. The response of the USA will be some combination of Manifest Destiny and violations of the 9th and 10th commandments. It will be our water that they will want. They will not be willing to give up the middle third of their country to desertification and they will see our water as the key solution.

I say ... let them have our water ... but make them pay. If fact, we could nationally start making changes right now to be ready for this when it happens. We will need the money to get our country ready for the immigrants.

That gets me to my real point. The Christian Church has finally been presented with a problem worthy of its whole attention. Christ clearly said that our lives should be defined by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and comforting the homeless. If we get off our hands, settle our differences and use the window of opportunity that we now have ... we can show the love of Christ to the whole world. It will be the Christian Church in North America, Northern Europe and Russia that will have to decide if we should profit from the coming change or risk it all to welcome and comfort the bewildered and dispossessed strangers at our gates.

It will play out in this generation. We have been warned, we have been given an opportunity and we have been challenged. We cannot change what will now surely happen in our lifetimes but we can get ready. Spread the word.