Another Perspective on Climate Change

The earth’s climate is changing. But why are we panicking? Don’t we love changes? Don’t we “vote for change” every election? But not climate change. Why not? Is it because it is most likely a “manmade” change and we feel guilt for it as humanity? But isn’t humanity itself a product of the earth's history and a major part of its biosphere? How can we separate ourselves from the planet and put the human above? Why do we consider geological causes of change as “legitimate”, but “man-made” causes as a disaster, as if mankind itself is not a product of the planet's development?

Thousands of biological species will disappear from the face of the earth. That is lamentable. But that is the way of evolution, the essence of life. That is how life was developing on this planet from the starting point. What can adapt, survives and thrives, what cannot, dies out. This is the same process that has brought us, humans, to existence. Why would we decide to play gods and stop it, freeze the picture? Is it nostalgia?

Changes are in some way good for us as a species. Even bad changes. They make us fight for life, they make us adapt, they make us more flexible and more prepared for future challenges. You would say that millions of people will lose their livelihoods to the rising ocean level. This is bad, I agree. But they don’t have to drown in the submerging lands. They have to adapt or move. And they will move. Where would they go? This is a hard question for which we will have to find an answer anyway. We need to accept the reality and find an agreed-upon solution to it.

While the actions of even well-meaning individuals may yield some local and temporary positive results, our civilization is developing following its own, largely unknown to us, laws. And without knowing these laws, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to change the direction it is going. Due to the current world social and political order, it may not be possible to completely stop and reverse climate change. These honorable efforts may not have a good chance to succeed. We may slow it down, but this will just move the burden of solution from our shoulders to our kids and grandkids. This is just not the answer we are looking for.

So, what is my suggestion? Stop weeping for that poor people losing their multigenerational habitat. Instead, or in addition to spending political energy and money trying to stop the unstoppable, why not embrace it, accept that it is happening, and start working on the best solution to the problem? In sharp contrast to previous planetary disasters that occurred before civilization existed, we, humanity, have now some abilities to predict what will happen and plan for it. Instead of clogging busy highways with human chains and throwing cans of marinara at the world's masterpieces why not use that hard-earned extra time before the real disaster strikes to prepare for it? We can use this breather to develop and implement new technologies, infrastructures, and policies to alleviate the consequences of floods and high winds, to prevent forest fires, and maybe even to modify world order to make human resettlement less painful.

People have been living for centuries in shallow waters using stilt structures (like Sea Gypsies of Bodgaya Island) or floating islands in deep waters (like Uros on Lake Titicaca). Modern technological advances may even make such shoreline and ocean living more luxurious and less prone to wind damage. Contemporary advanced forest management practices, if used consistently, will prevent most of the forest fires, though they may need some improvements and corrections.

Up to this point, almost every large human migration (whether due to a war or a misbehaving nature) created a humanitarian crisis. And it is not going to get better. With the population growing that fast, every new disaster will force more and more people to seek new places to live. These climate-driven migrations may be much bigger in scale, but we have some time to prepare for them. Looming humanitarian crises may be avoided with proper planning. For example, why not acquire some “badlands” (undeveloped deserts, arid mountains, etc.) from countries that don’t want to develop them but need something in exchange, and help people to relocate there and to develop skills and technologies to turn these areas into livable spaces? Or to negotiate conditions on which refugees will be allowed to migrate and live in such “badlands” inside the host countries.

And look at the bright side. The entire Antarctic continent may shed off its ice cover and become available for human life. Isn’t that exciting? Hopefully, we can avoid the next World War for dividing this huge land mass by negotiating an agreement between interested and able parties well in advance. This may work out better for the distant (rather than immediate) future due to hyperbolic discounting law governing human thinking about the remote future. At some later point, independence wars may break out, when the new colonies will find themselves strong enough to stand for sovereignty. But that will designate the start of the next turn of human history spiral, which is too far in the future for us to foresee.