GAIA

Global Warming and the human ‘ant’

The front page of the Globe and Mail, July 29, 2010, was filled with 7 – yes, seven - graphs showing how the plant – Gaia – is warming up while glacier and sea ice is disappearing. Some of the graphs start in the mid-20th century and 3 go back to 1850-1870 records.

That the planet is getting warmer and ice retracting is not in doubt,
but to what degree are humans to ‘blame’ and how does this change fit
into broader, past eras in the Earth’s climate history?

Camille Paglia, in a ROM (Toronto) lecture in 2009 – rebroadcast on TVO Big Ideas just a week ago -- mentioned in passing that the current environmentalist ‘save the plant’/green movement has lost its way.
Why, because it believes we humans are so powerful through our interactions with the environment that we are ‘the’ factor behind all changes. But, as she put it, we are “miniscule” compared to all the elements that affect the Earth.

I believe she is right. Why?

Did you know that a the Mt. St. Helens’ eruption in 1980 – which reduced the volcano’s height by 1,500 feet and carved out a huge crater inside – produced more air pollution than the entire history of mankind? And this was not the only such massive volcanic activity in history. Even this spring’s Icelandic minor eruption – which shut down flights over England and Europe for days – did massive polluting to the atmosphere with its continuous billowing ash clouds.

2. Remember the hole in the ozone layer – blamed on aerosol cans and
related CFC chemicals? The fear was that the hole and thinning
ozone would allow harmful UVB rays from the sun to reach earth, destroying crop production, cause worldwide starvation and increasing skin cancers. Yes, an international moratorium on CFCs was instituted in the 1990’s, but hardly enough to stop the already created – ‘damage’. Yet, so far, despite the 2 holes over the Antarctic and North Pole, no link to any of the projected harmful effects have been found.

The holes are no longer newsworthy;except when, for instance, the southern one was reported on the radio news to have been helpful after the massive Chilean earthquake this year, as it allowed much of the debris and pollution to lescape the earth’s atmosphere.



Concentrations of green house gases and carbon over the major industrialized nations due to coal use was feared to lead to increased breathing problems for young and old, and shortened life spans. While asthma numbers are on the rise, recent studies have shown that jet plane travel over these areas disperse the pollutants like giant fans and the pollutants not really concentrated at all. And now jet travel is seen as an ‘environmental plus’ (despite the gas fuel consumption and engine exhaust).


As for the changing of the climate, again, Gaia has gone through various stages over time. The last Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago according to geological evidence and if the dinosaurs travelled across Alberta or the Gobi Desert in China – where their bones are found aplenty – then these places must have been lush tropical forest at one point.

To quote Wikipedia, Dinosuars”:
At the peak of the Mesozoic, there were no polar ice caps, and sea levels are estimated to have been from 100 to 250 meters (300 to 800 ft) higher than they are today. The planet's temperature was also much more uniform, with only 25 °C (45 °F) separating average polar temperatures from those at the equator. On average, atmospheric temperatures were also much higher; the poles, for example, were 50 °C (90 °F) warmer than today.[118][119]
The atmosphere's composition during the Mesozoic was vastly different as well. Carbon dioxide levels were up to 12 times higher than today's levels, and oxygen formed 32 to 35% of the atmosphere, as compared to 21% today. However, by the late Cretaceous, the environment was changing dramatically. Volcanic activity was decreasing, which led to a cooling trend as levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dropped. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere also started to fluctuate and would ultimately fall considerably. Some scientists hypothesize that climate change, combined with lower oxygen levels, might have led directly to the demise of many species. If the dinosaurs had respiratory systems similar to those commonly found in modern birds, it may have been particularly difficult for them to cope with reduced respiratory efficiency, given the enormous oxygen demands of their very large bodies.[5]

Finally, El Niño and La Niña, two large pools of raised and lowered water temperatures off of Peru, have been recognized since the early 1980’s as major forces behind radical changes in the wind patterns over North America, South America and as far away as Indonesia and Australia – altering their snowfall and rainy seasons. The causes of El Niño and La Niña are still unknown, but when they peak every few years, much of the world dances to their tunes.

So, in brief, Gaia has gone through and continues to go through many and diverse climate ups and downs – irrespective of our human, ‘ant’ impact.