Nature says: pay me now, or pay me later

In the grand scheme of things, where do we, humans, fit? Are we destined to become a tiny blip on the timeline of the universe? Five mass extinction events have occurred over the eons. We shouldn’t deceive ourselves into thinking that another extinction can’t happen. So why are we in such as hurry to bring about our own extinction through climate change, a phenomenon we still have some control over?

Save the Earth, save ourselves. This is obvious, but our nature seems to rebel against it. Our flaws — greed, corruption, indifference, stupidity — prevent us from doing what’s necessary. Has the need for self-preservation been overwhelmed by vested interests?

So that begs the question, do we deserve to be saved? How can we allow this to happen, to knowingly bring about our own demise? Is it hubris, conceit, that we can’t imagine we won’t find a solution? Intelligence without wisdom and humility is dangerous. Our technology, a silver bullet or bullets, may, in the short term, buy us some time, but only a little.

The tragedy is that the worst of climate change could have been prevented if we had only listened to our scientists and taken action. But that would have contradicted our nature to postpone, to procrastinate, in the hope that the predictions were exaggerated, that we could carry on business as usual, pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, waiting for a miracle.

We know that countries with vast stores of fossil fuels are determined not to have these become stranded assets. Economies will always trump the environment. We have been seduced by consumerism. Our governments and economic systems have failed us.

Now the Earth is calling in its debts and paying us back for all of the insults we have inflicted on her. “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.” Later has arrived with huge interest. Ecological succession states that “each species over time makes conditions unsuitable for itself, but suitable for some other life form.”

With us out of the picture and given time the Earth could begin to restore itself, other species would emerge or reemerge and the biosphere would cleanse itself of our pollution, but it would be a world without us. Perhaps this is the way it was always meant to be. We had a good run, but now it’s coming to a close? There is still time, but the clock is running down.

Unless we drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels, stop building pipelines, stop financing the fossil fuel industry, and stop mouthing empty promises at summits, then there is little reason to think that climate change won’t be runaway and catastrophic.

Human suffering will be unimaginable. And until we stop living as if there will be no tomorrow, there may well be no tomorrow. Think about that the next time you spend time with your grandchildren.