Undeniable evidence of global warming

This week I've been watching the CNN series "Planet in Peril" and I am so deeply saddened by what I've been seeing. I've seen all the movies, the Gore film, the DiCaprio film, both equally sobering and eye-opening. But this series really takes a first hand tour around the world, examining different areas of the globe that have been directly affected by climate change, and explaining the scientific reasons why. And the pictures are so sad, with so many people suffering, running out of food, with no clean water. It's truly frightening to me what a crisis we find ourselves in. I really am not sure if there's any coming back from it.

They just did a segment on Lake Chad. At one time Lake Chad was the 6th largest lake in the world. I remember learning about Lake Chad and its size, as a kid in geography class. However, over the past 40 years the lake has shrunk over 90%. 90%! My jaw dropped when I heard that. That is hardly a neglible amount. What was once over 6 feet of water is now desert, dry cracked earth with no water in sight. Of course the people in the surrounding countries of Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon depend upon the lake for survival. They use the lake for drinking water, for irrigation, and for fish for food. What little water is left is being siphoned off very quickly in order to irrigate the dry crops, as the area has been in a severe drought already due to global warming. And the number and quality of fish has depleted dramatically. The people of those countries will run out of food and water. If it only took 40 years to decrease by 90%, it will be no time at all before the remaining 10% is gone. And there is no rain.. in the middle of rainy season. Sadly I do not believe that there will be any turnaround for Lake Chad. It will become desert.

There are of course those who believe that this is a natural cycle of the planet. Well, the majority of scientists around the world agree that this is not the case. What we are seeing this time is different from other cycles that the planet has seen before. Overwhelming scientific evidence shows that it is in fact caused by global warming. We as a people are overusing the limited supply of resources that this planet has, and we are growing at an alarming rate. It does not take an economist to know that very soon the demand is going to far exceed the supply.  In fact, that is already the case in most parts of the developing world. We, in the US, and other developed nations, are the spoiled ones, the lucky ones, who have not yet seen starvation as a result of global warming. But we take for granted that that could never happen to us. Why not? It will.

Anyone who cares about the environment should read Jared Diamond's book Collapse. It is all about this. It is about very advanced civilizations of the past, who all ceased to exist because the populations grew to a point where they used up all of their resources. They overused the land, and in turn changed their own ecosystems until eventually than ran out of all they had and died out as civilizations. In his book he outlines the scientific evidence of each one of these civilizations and we can clearly see how their demand eventually exceeded their supply. We are on the same path. And we are not above it. We are no different than any of those civilizations were. Many of them were the most advanced of their times, and they died out without having all of the industrialized machines and production that are only increasing our speed towards the inevitable conclusion.

The planet needs to wake up. We all need to wake up and realize that we are no different from the civilization that was lost on Easter Island. They were on an Island with limited resources. We too are on an island. Our planet is an island in the universe. Once we use up all that this planet has to offer, there is nothing left. And nowhere to go. It will happen. It's just a question of how long it will take.