How Climate Change Kills History
And other lessons from an unlikely organizer.
It's eight days to our global climate day of action and I'm just headed back from Nashville, where I spoke to the annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I feel like one of those candidates on the eve of the election, scrambling across the landscape to make sure they leave no vote ungot. But truth be told, I don't really know what I'm doing.
I'm an author turned part-time activist. Not out of desire—my bumper sticker should read "I'd rather be writing"—but out of frustration, and the sense that no one was really building a popular movement about climate change, and that it needed to be done. In this quest I've worked with a crew of young people, all recent college grads, and we've learned side by side about how to organize. Learned by experience, because there's really no guidebook (so we wrote one last year, Fight Global Warming Now).
One of the things we've learned: Look for allies in unlikely places. Global warming can't be a fight dominated by the environmental organizations. They're simply not big enough—they're scaled to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, not take on ExxonMobil. So as we've built 350.org, we've focused hard on finding friends elsewhere—across the developing world, for example, in the kind of places that have never had a say in this question. The result: The day of action on October 24 will be the most widespread day of environmental activism ever, and quite possibly the most farflung day of action about any political issue the planet has ever seen. We're closing in on 170 countries. Practically the only ones left are incredibly small (San Marino) or incredibly impossible (North Korea).
Does it matter that, say, every country in Latin America is engaged, given that few of them will play a huge role at the Copenhagen conference? It does, I think—what we're trying to build is a global consensus about the science, trying to make 350 the most well-known number in the world. Consensus counts—it influences the options that the big players can credibly choose from.
But it's not just geographic spread we're looking for, which explains why I went onstage at the Ryman Auditorium and talked to historic preservationists. We need to grasp that everything is threatened by climate change. Not just nature preserves, not just ski areas, not just poor people who depend on glaciers for their water. But everything we take for granted about the world.
Take history. The Scots just published a list of 10,000 historic sites, dating back to the Neolithic, that may disappear as the oceans rise. A one foot rise in sea level, and the Washington Mall could flood regularly.
But it goes deeper than that. Our sense of the people who came before us derives in part from the fact that we share the same world. The historic buildings of New England have steep roofs because they needed to shed snow—in a world without snow we'd never be able to feel the deep connection to their world. We won't be able to farm in the places we used to farm, or fish in the places we used to fish—even if we survive, we'll be moored on a new, presumably artificial, island with no real link to the past. By the same token, our feeling for the world that came before can be leveraged to save the present. I went to Nashville to ask these folks to make sure that on Oct. 24 their historic properties take some part in this huge worldwide affair. All around the world people are using historic places as backdrops: the pyramids, say, or (this just in) the ruins of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Iraq.
We are trying to reach people through what they care about: Their love of the outdoors (athletes); their love of God (the World Council of Churches has signed on, asking congregations to ring their bells 350 times); their love of social justice (Christian Aid and Oxfam are on board); their love of history. Global warming touches everyone, and everything. That's the one thing I have learned.
This article is part of our Assignment 2020 project, a long-term reporting effort on the most important story of our time.
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Atlantis and Lemuria
Yeah, laugh all you want, but there were such civilizations...
Remember the Tsunamis? One of the things they revealed was that most coastal cities continued up to a mile out into the ocean. In short, they were built 10,000 years ago. Also some submerged 8,000 year old ruins off India.
During the colonization of the Americas the Aztecs told the few priests who'd listen about their history and culture. One thing of note, and this is very profound since the Spanish clergy was notably (inquisition, for instance) ignorant of much.
They said they were called the "Mexicana" and they had conquered their area, but they had originally been wanderers from "At-Atlan"... In short, Atlantis...
There probably was even a "Hyperborea" likely in Greenland during that time, for though the glaciers would have covered most of it, such climates can create wonderful tricks of the weather, like the current ocean currents that keep England a lot warmer than it should be.
Digging up the past...
I'll bet that there's been a lot of pave-overs, Rome has their catacombs, places like Venice are basically floating on water, but what it shows is that, like bees, we sort of build our hive onto whatever seems stable at the moment, and the dead layers are pushed to the bottom, or washed away by geographical changes etc.
Our legacy to the future will be plastic. 300 years from now, somebody's still going to be finding AIDS needles circling around in the pacific ocean currents...a 'pointed' reminder of history...
Klaatu marachas necktie
Um, a correction.
The catacombs were burial places for Christians so their tombs wouldn't be desecrated, not living spaces. Well, at least, in the strictest sense of the word.
As to the guy you're responding to, Aztlan was just a floating city, not Atlantis. Jesus, people's ignorance and willingness to jump to conclusions astounds me.
Do as I say...
Bill
So...you just got back to Nashville... how did you get there? What carbon-free means of transportation did you take?
Or...does the end justify the means with you? Some call this moral relativism.
I call it hypocrisy. What do you call it?
Heh yeah Bill, how can you
Heh yeah Bill, how can you complain about Carbon emissions, when YOU YOURSELF ARE MADE OF CARBON?
But seriously let's not be mental children here. You need to work within a system to change a system. The fact that an environmentalist is born within a non sustainable society does not somehow legitimize their desire to achieve a sustainable one. In this world, garnering support for a cause requires money and resources that can compete with corporate interests: this cannot be done sustainably in the short term. That's the whole point, that's what needs to change.
Right...
Ok...grant you travel is sometimes required. But why not consider video conferencing?
Ever see the photos of all the biz jets lined up for "environmental" or "climate change" get-togethers, like the "Kyoto Treaty"? Why have the meeting in Indonesia...Bali, wasn't it? Nice place. Wish I could afford a trip there. btw...the A/C requirements for all the Westerners forced the resort company to recharge all their leaking A/C units with the now outlawed (in the US) R-12 refridgerant...the one with the ozone eating chroroflourocarbons.
The environmental movement is filled with people making a good amount of money off the emotional hysteria. Check out your favorite "not for profit" organization's tax forms...they are online at www.guidestar.com. Amory Lovins, long-time socialist, environmentalist, "negawatt" boy, and head dude of the Rocky Mountain Institute, has a great income, houses, and travel budget. Check it out. Here's another one...carbonfund.org. They are selling carbon offsets to help those with a guilty conscience for being carbon-based units. Great rags to riches story in just five short years. They spend about 17 cents for every dollar donated on planting trees in South America. Of course, whoever gets the 17 cents most likey has the same ratio of "admin costs."
I am not complaining about the fact they used some ingenuity to play peoples' guilt into a fortune, not unlike some infamous televangelists...I just wish they would quit hiding behind their version of "holier than thou" Save the Earth mantra. Just fess up and tell us they like their hot showers and jet trips to nice resorts as much as I do.
Why is global warming a fight?
Further, why don't they call it 'global whining', or 'bored college kids with something to complain about'?
I'm not much for activism. I don't think it accomplishes a whole lot. I think if you approach the issue of climate change with a HEALTHY dose of skepticism, and in a more sober, less emotional, levelheaded fashion, then if you read and study enough about it, eventually the facts will reveal themselves.
There's something to remember in all of this, namely that, if you were to step back from the problem, say to the general orbit of the International Space Station, or maybe the moon, humans and all our supposed impact on the environment are very, very tiny, so small in scale as to even be insignificant, invisible, nonexistent. Not until you get within about a mile of the ground, can you actually SEE any of these little people-critters. And, boy, don't they think they're special. Ok, now, pan back a couple miles, little bipedal overambitious, water-filled bacterium no longer visible to the naked eye, and...what's THIS?!?!!? There's this Big Thing, poking up out of the ground, and there's...fire...coming out of it, and like, melted red stuff. Is it a big zit, or what? Oh, and there's smoke rolling out of it, too. A volcano. Volcanoes are large natural phenomena, and you're not installing a catalytic converter on one of those, and they can write all the environmental legislation they want, and it's not going to shut it down. And, turns out, there's more than one of these things, and they run day and night, relieving the planet's internal pressure, and making sure that one of our tectonic plates doesn't split in half.
Sure, humans have lots of things we consider Pretty Impressive, but 'mom' has her own view on things, and if she really gets mad, or is otherwise in the mood to do so, she just might Krakatoa one off in your back yard, and, wouldn't you know it, right there, there goes the property resale value. And the house. And the neighborhood, and the rest of the county/island/whatever. Maybe what's really needed in terms of environmental legislation is the Whiny College Student Reduction Act of 2010?
Klaatu marachas necktie
college students???
Go talk to a light switch or something that actually finds you interesting.
The head butt pro....butting one head at a time.
Another eco-thought:
If they're so concerned with The Environment, why not do some of that carbon sequestration where it'll do some good, like putting out coal seam fires? Of course, that'd be work, and would probably interrupt the shirt-rending and hand-wringing sessions..
Klaatu marachas necktie
Hey, hey anyone else
Hey, hey anyone else thinking about posting their own pseudoscience ramblings about volcanic activity or coal fires or bitterness at people who acquired a college education or whatever:
stop.
go here: http://realclimate.com/
If you can actually understand most of that blog, if you can go to the primary literature he cites and actually critically evaluate it and understand what makes a scientific paper valid, then continue.
If not then pipe down, kiddo.
Thank You
I want to thank you for being environmentally conscience and trying to help the world. I get so angry when my friends talk about how it's a bunch of crap because it is colder where I live, but they don't see how the climate is changing so much even here and certainly around the world. People need to look outside of their areas to see the full impact we are having on the Earth.
we need protect our earth
we need protect our earth
It's a shame
It's a shame how global warming is destroying not only our planet but history in historical , which future generations will not have any knowledge or record of.
mother jones! i am very
mother jones! i am very disappointed in you for publishing this bias, emotion driven pile of crap. any logical thinker knows that global warming is a fallacy and tool of control with the intention to make money and scare the people. fear is the best way to keep people under wraps, and if you tell everyone the world is dying, of course people will pitch in to buy a band-aid!!! unfortunately for those people, they would be very disappointed when they pealed the band-aid back and couldn't even find a scar!
i just wonder who bribed you to publish that anyway?
Reality & Perspective
I remember noticing years ago that blossoms were appearing on trees earlier than they used to. I remember talking to others about that and wondering why. I watch programs on why our oceans are now filled with mucosa (it's because of warmer waters) and how they're becoming acidified (CO2 = Acid rain). It's a fact that coral reefs are dying because the water's warmer temperatures kill them off. It's a fact that CO2 levels have been measured as increased in the atmosphere. It's a fact that Southern California's soil moisture content is reduced and resulting in more wildfires, it's a fact that there are small island nations that no longer exist because they've flooded. If there isn't any global warming then why are nations claiming territory in Antarctica? No one wanted it before... but now the ice is receding and it's becoming valuable. How many videos of Polar Bears trying to find food, do you need to see before you begin to think something's going on? Going Wrong?
Yes, we have a lot of fear mongering and it's also true that people use that as a means to make money. But let's not "throw out the baby with the bath water" here folks. Global warming is very real and we do not know the consequences of it's full impact. How can we? We don't even know all of the species of plants and animals on the planet.
Let's take an intelligent and thoughtful approach to this issue. Let's choose not to be scared but to spend the time needed to determine our best solutions and push our governments and businesses to pursue those solutions.
Even if you still feel climate change is a hoax... how can you justify risking something so important by simply burying your head in the sand? Research your perspective, don't simply take others opinions.
Lucas is well-intentioned...
The "facts" you state are in fact, not facts. A fact is an incontravertible truth. You noticing blossoms appearing sooner is not a fact supporting climate change. Polar bear populations decreasing is NOT a fact. There is much evidence that in some areas the populations are increasing. Many studies are based on forecast models that are incorrect. See these references:
http://kestencgreen.com/polarbears.pdf
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1545036/Polar-bears-thriving-a...
A movie maker can take a picture and add a voice over to convince you of dire straights when in fact the opposite is happening. Heck, I know a failed presidential candidate that ran around with a powerpoint presentation saying all kinds of things that aren't true and he won a Nobel Peace Prize. But then, it doesn't take much to win one of those.
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