Oorgo: Get it before it's gone

March 24, 2006

Get it before it's gone

Something I've noticed in the past few months, I don't know whether this is because of cheap accomodations/airfare, the age I'm at, or a subliminal urge brought on by worldly trends and developments, but a lot of the people I know have or are have planned out a trip to somewhere outside of the country. The destinations vary from tropical getaways to far away countries like China or Thailand.

I've been thinking that I will have to plan a similar flight soon, my purpose would be different and planned: to witness world wonders that will not be in the state that they currently are in say 10 years. One of these places is the sinking city of Venice, I've heard the square is only above water for a handful of days a year, if they can't create a solution that will be a worldwide loss of history. I would have liked to visit New Orleans, there's another place that will never be the same.

They're saying now that in the next 100 years we're going to see substantial rising of the oceans because of accelerated melting of the polar caps. If the recent weather is anything to go on, I don't want to see what we're going to be hit with in 2050. I'm no scientist, but I"m thinking constant hurricanes/cyclones somewhere in the world, tidal waves, increased earthquake activity, disappearing islands and land shifts. With the increase in temperatures there will also be an increase in sickness, pestilence and bug infestations, resulting partially from a lack of extreme cold weather which seems to kill off many of the disease carrying pests. I also predict an increase in winds and a decrease in arrid land, in northern Alberta alone I've noticed there are few days that the wind doesn't blow, and when it does it's usually pretty brisk. When I was a kid there was more moisture, less warm days, more snow and less wind.

I hate being negative, but I think we're going to have to start adapting to this place while trying to change our behavior, as we've gone past the point of no return. There will never be a time like there was, the weather will get wilder and more unpredictable, the seas will rise and our environment will change, that's a given. The amount of ground-level ozone and CO2 that we've generated is out there and there is no way of bringing it back, and the leaps and bounds that science has achieved in alternative fuel and combustion engines over the past few years is too little too late. If they would have started back when science found out about global warming maybe we would be in a situation where we could postpone the impending changes.

Humankind has some work ahead and some changes to do but what are we doing? Killing each other, squabbling over land, fighting over who's g*d is the real g*d, vainly trying to eek out ever last drop of our addiction (oil) out of the planet, even though the reliance on it is partially what's killing us, imposing our beliefs and morals on other people, judging, convicting, and sentencing ourselves to death.

Posted by Oorgo at March 24, 2006 01:52 PM Permalink - Category: Ponderings | TrackBack

Comments

"There will never be a time like there was."

There never was a time like there was. You make the same mistake many people do, thinking that the Earth climate was unchanging for long periods of time. Mankind has been tracking weather for a very short time, and we really don't know what climate changes are possible in the short term. In the middle ages (just a few hundred years ago), Europe went through a mini-ice age. There have been flower seeds found on the tops of the Andes in South America. The Earth climate is constantly in flux, and although you might be right that it's going to get worse for a while, you'd also be right to think that it's going to get better in the not-too-distant (as climate time is measured) future.

Posted by: Ted at March 25, 2006 07:15 PM

Ted man, wake up and smell the coffee. Humans may have only been tracking weather changes for a short time yes, but why is it that every new report that comes out from every scientific front keeps getting more and more grim? If we are just now figuring out how things work then doesn't it reason that we might only know 1/4 of what shit we're in for?

Just because there were flower seeds on top of the Andes doesn't mean that we humans will live through such drastic changes in weather. It's not the planet that's going to die, it will recover no matter what we do to it. We are the ones who are succeptable to minor temperature changes. WE are the ones who die en masse when Mother Nature shifts in her bed, sending a tidalwave or hurricane our way.

Just think of fog and how difficult it makes moving from one place to another, and the people that die every year in car accidents because of it. If incidents of thick fog tripled, imagine how that would impact our lives, and that's just a simple change.

We are the ones who are going to pay, I've stopped being concerned for the earth, I'm more concerned for my children and their children. Understandbly we will adapt, we do that well, but what kind of standard of living will they have? It's a freaky concept.

Posted by: Oorgo at March 27, 2006 02:27 PM

I have had one of those moments myself as of late. Sad for the future, but powerless to stop any of it..

I think it's not as grim as they say.. but visiting possible places that disappear isn't a bad idea. I did the same thing when I went to a lot of 60's and 70's rock legends concerts.. I have to say America was pretty damn good. Steve Miller also did just fine when he played his old shit..

Posted by: Dr Pants at March 28, 2006 12:51 PM

Traveling to places that are in danger of disappearing is a really great idea. Not just for the sake of seeing them, but as an opportunity to really reflect on the state of the world and how things are changing.

The future frightens me. I guess this is why I spend so much time with my head in books trying to understand it all. And when you have kids, it becomes a much heavier burden to bear-- at least if you tend to think about such things, which a lot of people don't.

Back to endangered places...

This week on TV I heard the last bit of an interview with someone who has recently written a book about all of the cities that are in places they shouldn't be (and why). Cities "at risk" that don't get a lot of attention are those in deserts, like TUCSON (my birth city), which is apparently importing its water these days. Crazy.

The author speculates that a generation or two from now (at most), several U.S. cities that we now take for granted will be ruins for the entertainment of tourists (who will be scratching their heads and wondering why the hell did we think it was a good idea to live in such places!?).

Anyway, if anyone knows who the author or the title of this book is, please let me know!

Posted by: gamutalarm at April 20, 2006 02:54 PM