Sixth Mass Extinction episode - and that's us, would you believe! What is happening is a tragedy for humanity. In the process, we are bringing down all other life forms.
I think, we humans have exhibited hubris, folly and, short-sightedness in thinking that we can live infinitely on a finite planet and unnaturally on a natural planet. And, thinking it would not have, eventually the most unfortunate of consequences for us all.
We had the intelligence but not the wisdom.
We had the knowledge going back to the 1850s but still failed to take seriously what scientists, Eunice Foote and John Tyndall had discovered - and reinforced and confirmed ever since.
We even had Margaret Thatcher, as here:
How right Margaret Thatcher was when she said, on the 27 September 1988, in a speech to the Royal Society,
"For generations, we have assumed that the efforts of mankind would leave the fundamental equilibrium of the world's systems and atmosphere stable. But it is possible that with all these enormous changes (population, agricultural, use of fossil fuels) concentrated into such a short period of time, we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of this planet itself. (my emphasis)
"Recently three changes in atmospheric chemistry have become familiar subjects of concern. The first is the increase in the greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons—which has led some [end p4] to fear that we are creating a global heat trap which could lead to climatic instability. We are told that a warming effect of 1°C per decade would greatly exceed the capacity of our natural habitat to cope. Such warming could cause accelerated melting of glacial ice and a consequent increase in the sea level of several feet over the next century. This was brought home to me at the Commonwealth Conference in Vancouver last year when the President of the Maldive Islands reminded us that the highest part of the Maldives is only six feet above sea level. The population is 177,000. It is noteworthy that the five warmest years in a century of records have all been in the 1980s—though we may not have seen much evidence in Britain!
FROM: - https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346
The exploitation of finite fossil fuels was a rush to the blood that is now bringing catastrophe. Even turning earth into our sister or twin planet, venus seems to be the uncomfortable reality. Fossil fuels are a mixed blessing, indeed.
A brilliant but brief tenure on planet earth for homo sapiens!
The first book of the Bible is optimistic about our future, that we humans are the top dogs in creation and can do as we like with the rest of creation. The last book acknowledges that "the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more." It has the promise of "a new heaven and a new earth" and "the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God ... for the former things have passed away". (Revelation 21 v 1-4) The best has yet to come.
However, none of us should be helping things along by knowing about the threats facing us but then doing nothing.
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