“Global warming is a crock.”
“I, uh… whuzzat?”
“It’s a crock. And if it is real, I don’t think humans have anything to do with it.”
“You can’t be serious. I thought you were a deeper thinker than that.”
“I am serious. There is no credible proof that we’re witnessing a change in our environment that is human-induced. I think it’s a naturally occuring cycle — if there is anything happening at all.”
“Uh, okay…. Okay. So picture, if you will, yourself standing at an ordinary city intersection during the middle of the day. Now stand there for 10 minutes and imagine how many cars are passing you — hundreds in a 10 minute span. Get a sense of how much CO2 and other gases are being spurted out the exhaust pipes by the vehicles that pass. Actually, imagine this in winter, because then you can actually see the billowing exhaust. Now imagine all of the other intersections and roadways in the city and all of the vehicles passing those points.”
“Well, if we’re talking 10 minutes, then a lot of those vehicles will be the same ones passing multiple intersections.”
“Yes, and they’ve been firing their crap into the air from here to there and all points in between the whole time.”
“Alright.”
“Now consider all of the other cities and towns in the area. And now the whole country. And the highways. It’s happening all those places too at exactly the same time. We’re talking a lot of vehicles.”
“Okay.”
“But I’m not done. Let’s zoom out and consider all of the countries in which this is happening, and all of their towns and cities and highways. Now, we’re in Canada, so you’re thinking too small probably. We have a really low population density, and so a low vehicle density. But look at the States, look at places like India, China, Japan, Europe, Mexico. Consider New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Beijing, London, Paris, Moscow, and all points in between. And a lot of these places don’t have emission controls like we do. Getting the picture?”
“Yeah, sort of, but these are little points on the map of a big world. I’m still not buying it.”
“Not strictly true. Some of these places cover large enough chunks of land that they are easily visible from space. But, okay, well now add industrial output — coal fired power plants, and all manner of industry all over the world. You may have noticed that just about everything you can buy these days is made in China. Imagine how much industrial output and pollution that represents to produce and distribute that stuff all over the world. It’s mind-boggling, really. Nevermind the mining pollution and other environmental devastation that those products represent.”
“Sure.”
“And now remember that I’ve just been talking about a 10 minute slice of time. But this expulsion of waste into the atmosphere by all these different means goes on all day and all night. And it never, ever stops. Ever. And it has been intensifying year after year, decade after decade, for the last century or more.”
Terry shrugged and shook his head. “Naw, I don’t think it’s enough. The world’s a really big place. I really don’t think it’s a big deal.”
“Okay then, mister stubborn-pants. Here’s something people don’t realize, or recognize, or acknowledge, or whatever. How does our planet handle CO2? What processes it?”
“Plants. Trees…”
“Right. Also there is absorption into the oceans I think, but my point is this: Not only are we pumping an enormous quantity of greenhouse gases into the air on a constant and accelerating basis, but at the same time we are also butchering the Earth’s mechanisms for dealing with it. We are deforesting the planet at an alarming rate. Rainforests are the lungs of our planet. They convert and filtering the air we and every other animal breathe. Yet vast swaths of rainforest are being sacrificed to create agricultural land or not even that — just stripped for the lumber and left as forests of dead stumps. And it’s happening at an alarming rate. I think I read something like 13 million hectares a year. 13 million. Per year. Holy crap. How much forest do you think we have? In 10 years, that’s 130 million hectares! Canada’s about a billion hectares in area, just for comparison.”
“A billion hectares? Well then you’re only talking about 13 percent of the country in 10 years.”
“Yeah. And in 40 years it would be half. That’s easily within your and my lifetime. Canada is a gigantic country man. Enormous. That’s a lot of forest gone. And it’s not like the entire planet is covered by forest either. And that’s assuming deforestation stays at the same rate, but you and I know that’s not the way it works. It’s gonna go up and up and up, right?”
“Yeah. Most likely.”
“Oh. I’m actually a bit surprised you didn’t pull out the supply and demand argument there. Rising prices will curb demand and — Oh hurray! — the miracle of capitalism will have saved the forests!”
Terry smiled, “No. No, I’m not that naive.”
“Okay, well…. to finish my little rant… So not only are we pumping crap into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate, we are at the same time decimating the very mechanisms that would allow the Earth to mitigate it. I mean, come on, you’ve gotta see that if global warming is real — which, obviously, I believe it is — then we are the bloody cause. Either that or we’re an awfully big component of it. We cannot absolve ourselves of this.”