Sunday, October 25, 2009

• So, All Good Things Must Come to an End ...

  Sunday, January 8, 2012
• Nuts! Ready, Get Set, Grow -- Producing Crops in the Keys

  Sunday, October 2, 2011
• The Farm of the Future in a Third-world Country

  Sunday, September 4, 2011
• The Four 'R's Won't Work Without the Four 'E's

  Sunday, August 7, 2011

If the human species survives on earth, which is, at least to me, highly suspect at this moment, it will be because we have realized in time just how far out of step with nature we have become.

In observing nature, one clearly sees how in tune all living things are. Geese migrate at the right time to the right place without any clock or GPS to tell them when and where. Vast herds of wildebeest travel across Africa according to a timetable of the seasons that dates back to the beginning of time. Butterflies leave Mexico, the swallows return to Capistrano and terns show up in the Dry Tortugas.

Man, on the other hand, consistently takes more than he needs, insulates himself from the heat and cold by artificial means that pollute his environment and generally lives out of the bounds of the natural order in more ways than I could possibly recount in this single column.

We are the only animal on earth that is, with a fairly large body of recognizable evidence, rushing to our own extinction.

I wonder, as I take the time and trouble to even talk about this subject, how many will have turned the page by now or have already made up their minds that this is just another nut-ball article about climate change and so what? It's a beautiful day outside, my car has gas in it and my refrigerator is full of food. What am I supposed to do about climate change? It is too remote, too complicated and, as some critics will tell you, it is simply a big hoax anyway. Yawn! Turn on the TV ... what's the use!

We are, indeed, a strange beast. We wait until we have a sustained crisis before we deign to do anything about something that we are pretty sure is heading our way like a runaway freight train.

My company employees did something on their own of which I am very proud. They have adopted the opportunity to extol the philosophy of the Sioux nation by wearing sky blue T-shirts on the seventh day of every month that read, "Think globally, act locally." It's a small gesture but addresses the fact that the Sioux nation always made decisions that took into account the next seven generations of its people. It's a small thing but it's something.

Time and space do not allow for regurgitating the many words that I, and others, have written in this community about things you can do to protect the sensitive environments of the world, not just for the people who want to come down and go fishing once a year, not just for ourselves, but for generations to come. If I have learned anything in my personal quest to understand the global environmental conundrum in which we find ourselves, it is that everything is connected. From the reefs off Key West to the cane fields in Central Florida, to the Brazilian rainforest, to the factories in China, it is all one big system and when one part is in trouble, the entire globe suffers.

Noam Chomsky put it exceedingly well by saying, "We are responsible for the predictable consequences of our actions." Many things we do are done without any idea of how they will play out over time -- but many of the things we are doing today we know precisely how they will play out and it is not a pretty picture.

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Climate Action Team of the City of Key West presented its Climate Action Plan for adoption by the city commission. I am holding the 65 pages in my hand. It's a piece of work! The first two pages contain the names of the people who participated in producing it and while I cannot name them all here, a great deal of credit needs to go to Annalise Mannix, Alison Higgins, Jody Smith-Williams, Bridget Dawson, Lucy Gage, Val Candy and, again, so many more that they cannot be mentioned.

Their plan outlines a program to get the city to reduce its carbon emissions by 15 percent by the year 2015. Will this really make a difference? Did the city commissioners really sit up with engrossed attention to the significance of this plan? No, it will not make much of a difference. It will be like a drop of water in a bucket. I can't say whether the city commissioners who unanimously passed adoption of the plan understand (I know I don't yet) or truly support it. I hope so, and I believe so. It takes courage to start something, and I think it is true that no matter how little effect this program has, it is only when the single drop of water combines with other drops of water that it becomes a stream of conscious actions that make a difference.

You had to see the PowerPoint photos that Mannix showed of existing water levels at high tide in Key West, with tidal water already in the streets, to realize that "something" is happening. Her next map showed what the results will be in approximately 100 years at the same rate of increasing tides. A great portion of Key West will be under some level of water, including the entire airport area.

Even if global warming is partially due to natural causation, such as a changing angle of the earth's orbit, it is clear to the majority of scientists today that man is having an effect on the process.

Knowing this, we can either choose to take what actions we can or buy rubber boots for our grandchildren to keep their feet dry.