Global Change and Sustainability
FOLE_C18FF.QXD 9/10/08 6:39 PM Page 268 EXERCISE 18 Global Change and Sustainability INTRODUCTION doubters are funded by special interest groups and fossil fuel coalitions that do not want research on, or “The public in the industrialized nations, particularly in evidence of, global change that could impact their the United States, must be made more aware of the economic condition (Gelbspan, 1997). Island nations, pervasive trends in environmental degradation and environmentalists, active geoscientists, environmen- resource depletion, and of the need to modify pat- tal economists, and insurance organizations were terns of life to cope with these trends.” among the first to recognize that global change is —KAULA AND ANDERSON, PLANET EARTH COMMITTEE, occurring. Now many groups are working on adapta- AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION, 1991 tions to change and on ways to reduce human “The time to consider the policy dimensions of cli- impact globally. mate change is not when the link between green- We should be able to adapt to the limits of our house gases and climate change is conclusively habitat on Earth without overshooting them. Many proven Á but when the possibility cannot be dis- organisms undergo increases and collapses in their counted and is taken seriously by the society of populations but they do not have our technology, which we are part. We in BP have reached that information, and understanding. We have models, point.” examples, and explanations of why societies collapse (Diamond, 2005). We probably will never understand —JOHN BROWNE, GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE, how the total Earth system works; however, we need BP AMERICA, 1997 to write the “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.” The quotations above capture the concern of many The final activity in this exercise is constructing a geologists who understand Earth history and scenario—your description of the future viewed from change in the Earth system.
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