Undoing some of the damage to delay our extinction date

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

An enduring popular myth suggests that in the 1970s the climate science community was predicting “global cooling” and an “imminent” ice age, an observation frequently used by those who would undermine what climate scientists say today about the prospect of global warming. Over the years I’ve had squabbles here on this matter.

Human interference with the planet’s natural carbon balance, through activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, may delay the next glacial cycle by 100,000 years.

I might have already mentioned that mammalian species on average have a “lifespan” of about 1 million years from origination to extinction.

Although our lot (Homo sapiens)  have existed slightly less than a third of that time, it appears that we have doomed ourselves to a much shorter period before our own extinction.

In his recent book Hothouse Earth, professor Bill McGuire wrote Human civilisation began 10,000 years ago and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels should have been falling not rising and should now be about 250ppm, not the 420ppm we have now — and still rapidly accelerating.

Although at this late stage we can’t undo all the damage, we can do all that is possible to delay the extinction date . . . but it all depends on the collective action of all of us.

The first thing we must do is go easier on the planet.

It is either that ice age or Hothouse Earth. It seems we need to go for something in between.

Collectively it is up to us.

Bob Hughes