Solutions? How the planet can survive the age of Humans.
According to some sources, we have five times as much carbon as we can afford to put into the atmosphere still left to burn. [1] In looking at the past we can see clearly that continuing as we are now will cause a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth.
Climate change is only one, although very significant, stress factor facing life on Earth, we directly have simply eaten or removed the habitat of so many species in such a short period of time that climate change can only be considered one of these issues to be addressed rather than a stand alone problem, which would be difficult enough to solve on its own. A compete and immediate switch from fossil fuels to renewable power sources would be an ideal situation along with restoration of global habitats and their species, but due to the short term monetary gains to be had from the fossil fuel industry and general inconvenience for humanity, this is merely wishful thinking.
Clearly, it is money and the improvement in quality of life that it brings that is the driving factor for the use of fossil fuels. So perhaps a solution is to make it so the preservation and restoration of the Earth system brings just as much or even more of these gains than damaging it does now. If preserving habitats is a good investment on all levels, then people will be interested. This is something that Mark Lynas proposes in his book "The God Species". [2]
Mark Lynas also argues that we must take a more active role in conserving our environments, rather than the traditionally "green" wishful thinking of somehow returning it to it's past state. An example of this can be found in the Indian Ocean where over hunting of a key predator in the food web has lead to a rising population of it's former prey the "Crown-of-Thorns" starfish [3], which in turn feeds on coral by excreting enzymes and dissolving the coral before absorbing it. The previously healthy web has thus been interupted by people meaning that the area has seen a loss of over 50% of the reef in 60 years [4] as more Crown-of-Thorns survive to eat the coral. A management plan in the area has included the removal of Crown-of-Thorns by divers to other locations and the growing of removed small sections of coral in underwater coral nursery nets that have to be cared for daily before being "transplanted" back into the parent reef.
This kind of hands on involvement is what we should expect to have to do more and more of to correct the imbalances we have introduced to the system, we will have to fill the holes we have created in a previously autonomous system.
In short, all our current methods are outdated, both the use of fossil fuels and the orthodox solutions to the problems, as Lynas puts it we need to "...use [active] science and technology to [consciously] play God and save the planet."
In looking at past extinctions we can see that there is often an explosion of life when the earth recovers and the new life is also often more complex and diverse (eventually) than it was before. So maybe this reflects on the future of our current mass extinction event.
Climate change is only one, although very significant, stress factor facing life on Earth, we directly have simply eaten or removed the habitat of so many species in such a short period of time that climate change can only be considered one of these issues to be addressed rather than a stand alone problem, which would be difficult enough to solve on its own. A compete and immediate switch from fossil fuels to renewable power sources would be an ideal situation along with restoration of global habitats and their species, but due to the short term monetary gains to be had from the fossil fuel industry and general inconvenience for humanity, this is merely wishful thinking.
Clearly, it is money and the improvement in quality of life that it brings that is the driving factor for the use of fossil fuels. So perhaps a solution is to make it so the preservation and restoration of the Earth system brings just as much or even more of these gains than damaging it does now. If preserving habitats is a good investment on all levels, then people will be interested. This is something that Mark Lynas proposes in his book "The God Species". [2]
Mark Lynas also argues that we must take a more active role in conserving our environments, rather than the traditionally "green" wishful thinking of somehow returning it to it's past state. An example of this can be found in the Indian Ocean where over hunting of a key predator in the food web has lead to a rising population of it's former prey the "Crown-of-Thorns" starfish [3], which in turn feeds on coral by excreting enzymes and dissolving the coral before absorbing it. The previously healthy web has thus been interupted by people meaning that the area has seen a loss of over 50% of the reef in 60 years [4] as more Crown-of-Thorns survive to eat the coral. A management plan in the area has included the removal of Crown-of-Thorns by divers to other locations and the growing of removed small sections of coral in underwater coral nursery nets that have to be cared for daily before being "transplanted" back into the parent reef.
This kind of hands on involvement is what we should expect to have to do more and more of to correct the imbalances we have introduced to the system, we will have to fill the holes we have created in a previously autonomous system.
In short, all our current methods are outdated, both the use of fossil fuels and the orthodox solutions to the problems, as Lynas puts it we need to "...use [active] science and technology to [consciously] play God and save the planet."
In looking at past extinctions we can see that there is often an explosion of life when the earth recovers and the new life is also often more complex and diverse (eventually) than it was before. So maybe this reflects on the future of our current mass extinction event.
References:
[1] http://ingienous.com/
[2] Lynas, Mark, "The God Species", fourth edition,
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown-of-thorns_starfish#Predators
[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fzb9c
[1] http://ingienous.com/
[2] Lynas, Mark, "The God Species", fourth edition,
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown-of-thorns_starfish#Predators
[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fzb9c