Yesterday I finished the book: "Mistakes Were Made... but Not by Me: why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions and hurtful acts." It was a great book, and had some great recommendations. I can remember thinking, as I turned the last pages: "That was really good. I will put these steps into practice, the first chance I get. But I'm not usually like that, so it might take some time..." Ha.
(God must have heard me think that. I don't think of Him as vengeful, or spiteful, or controlling, or mean. But He is playful. And apparently ironic.)
I was checking over some old posts today, and I ran across one on my post on climate change. It was, shall we say, blunt:
Man I hate it when people lie. You are not a climatologist, and you don't know a thing about climate change. The end of the Younger Dryas came in about 15 years. That was a 20 degree jump in the temperature of the planet in about 15 years, and here we are panicking over less than a 2 degree increase occurring over a century, with all of that erased just last year.
So, please stop lying to people.
Of course, my immediate reaction was that they guy was a jerk: more because I do not enjoy being called a liar than anything else. But I checked his notes and I found that his initial comment about the Younger Dryas was, in fact, correct (allowing for the furthest outliers, perhaps, but within the realm of possibility). Most people won't know when this was, but at the end of the last ice age there was a change in temperatures that was apparently even more rapid than the one we are observing today. That's what caused all that ice to retreat.
So I appended my post and responded to the comment. It's true that I'm not a climatologist; my degrees are in earth science and geography. And sometimes I write to fast for my own good. And I learn from my mistakes.
Thus my claim in writing that piece was not correct. I did not do my homework. There have been equally rapid changes in climate in the past. This does not change my claims that (a) climate change today is real and is happening, (b) it is caused by human activity, and (c) to think that it is not a problem is ideological and complacent.
According to the research I was able to do (today), such environmental changes were not... easy ones. Part of the theory is that such rapid changes happen because something starts "a vicious feedback cycle". This last one appears to have been caused by (or caused) significant changes in ocean currents (which moderate temperatures across the globe) and is associated with the melting of the last glaciers, which stretched across all of Canada, down to the Missouri and Ohio Rivers. Taking it a bit further: I'm not sure whether this is an even better illustration of why we should avoid rapid climate change (or climate change at all). It is one thing not to know how changes in climate might affect the habitation of this planet. It is quite another to see that there have been such examples in the past, and to know that they were effectively quite cataclysmic. I do not want to live through anything like that, and especially not to cause it.
Lastly, I have one more note about the comment that was left for me. I do my writing for the purpose of learning: about writing, certainly, but about other things as well: other perspectives and ideas and ways of looking at things. Of course I am trying to share some of my own knowledge; but I am just as quick to absorb it from others. It does not have to be in line with my own ways of thinking in order to be valuable: some of the best material I've read has changed my ideas about things. All I ask is that people be civil.
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Comments: 25
You're really piqued me interest with the book you just finished reading and thanks for teaching me something new about climate change. ;)
I like your writing and your spirit.
Good for you.
And Carl: you are correct, there have always been cycles and upheavals and changes in the climate patterns on earth. It is quite possible that we cannot do anything about them, and we are doomed to live on a planet where the carrying capacity shifts higher and lower over time. Sometimes I think there are just too many of us wanting too much to be able to do anything but kill our planet. However, that is not necessarily so. Even if it turns out to be a fools errand, I think it is better to spend my life (even if wasted) looking for a way to solve these problems than spending it (equally wasted) enjoying the hedonistic luxuries of our time.
Another well-done post. Good luck getting people to be civil. :-)
I don't think there's anything we can do about climate change. There's always been cycles and upheavals. We may be using up the planet, depleting its resources, replacing them with effluvia.
Science fiction writers have dreamed up yarns about people leaving dying planets to despoil new ones. We could delay our planets demise with normal "green" precautions. Nothing more.
If anything, all I was saying there was that those are the two extremes of *my* life. And I find that hedonistic luxuries are a bit.... boring, after a while. Not nearly as fun as trying to get people to be more civil, eh? (That's my British upbringing.)
Aniko, your use of the words "sort of justified" is talking about exactly the kind of thing the book is about. We can often generate justifications (self-justifications) but that does not mean we always need to act on them. Being "right" is not always the most important thing. In the case of climate change, it is more important to continue the discussion than to have the parties all walk away in a huff... especially if one of those parties is going to continue as before, wasting energy and pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. I might feel justified today, but if things continue I lose ultimately.
I ask myself, "If this move destroys the home of an animal, who lives on and needs his area to stay as God has intended to survive, what are we doing to ourselves, guided only by those who promise jobs, (to gain support) and GREED. IF our government had done as a few other countries, we could, with our technology, and we have a lot more money I had assumed than some of these countries, also be independent of the need for oil way before now. The decision to not start early has a lot of blood on it's hands in my little journal. And that is sad. Great Post, Ellen B
That's the mark of a true writer who can take some constructive criticism and make it work to their advantage. If you don't listen to your readers, it could cost you some serious readership.
And, the best writers always double check, and correct their mistakes, if they indeed did make them.
It's great that you owned up to your faux pas, and gave a whole article, with some fresh perspective. I commend you for sticking up for the facts that were correct, and for correcting the one that was not quite so right.
Listening, and sharing is the best thing you can ever do. It makes you a much better writer, and a great person.
partially insincerely want to teach others something
often do it in just the way to close their minds to an
idea forever, and make them hostile to us at the same
time. It is so common I wonder if there is an evoplutionary
value to that behavior?
keep on posting what you want and we all learn from each other!
The book sounds quite interesting, by the way. It's a topic I've been interested in for some time.
Global warming is already affecting the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet. Australia is having a pretty bad time of it too lately with bush fires and floodings. Is it better to act now to try and minimise the damage just in case the predictions are correct or wait with our feet up until we have to evecuate millions of people from flooded coastal cities?