Nature (an academic journal) is grabbing headlines with a new "big think" piece. Here is a quote from the LA Times
"A group of international scientists is sounding a global alarm, warning that population growth, climate change and environmental destruction are pushing Earth toward calamitous — and irreversible — biological changes.
In a paper published in Thursday's edition of the journalNature, 22 researchers from a variety of fields liken the human impact to global events eons ago that caused mass extinctions, permanently altering Earth's biosphere.
"Humans are now forcing another such transition, with the potential to transform Earth rapidly and irreversibly into a state unknown in human experience," wrote the authors, who are from the U.S., Europe, Canada and South America."
These scientists could certainly be right about their predictions about global climate patterns but how do they know that we (both people and creatures) have such limited ability to adapt to the "new normal"? I don't see any social scientists involved in this project. I would like to see these 22 researchers tell a convincing story for how the trends they highlight will decimate our world and that we will be defenseless to protect ourselves in the face of this change.
I would like to see these "crystal ball" researchers explain in nitty/gritty details the "calamitous" scenarios they envision for us and creatures. If they foresee this tragedy, are there really no pathways to adapt?
To quote these guys again,
"The swiftness of climate change is likely to outpace the ability of species to adapt, especially as natural habitat becomes more fragmented, Barnosky said.
All this could produce a biologically impoverished Earth that would rob humans of vital ecological services such as insects that pollinate crops, forests that provide clean water, and tropical species that are the source of new drugs.
"We have created a bubble of human population and economy … that is totally unsustainable and is either going to have to deflate gradually or is going to burst," said co-author James Brown, a distinguished professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. "If it's going to burst, the consequences are really going to be grim for people as well as biodiversity and the rest of the planet."
So, take a look at the middle paragraph. If we anticipate that Mother Nature won't be providing these services anymore, isn't there a profit opportunity for innovators who can deliver a substitute?
I disagree with Prof. James Brown. He needs to take a class in econ 101 at the Economics Department at UNM. Capitalism will be the solution here not the problem.
