Global Warming and the pride of scientists

This post is not about how global warming exists, or how global warming doesn't exist. This post is about how the issue of global warming has shamelessly displayed the hubris of the scientific community.

Recently we've been hearing with increasing frequency about how global warming is causing climate change, and how it's displacing millions with drought, hurricanes, etc. What the scientific community has entirely ignored is the fact that our planet is alive. Historians, anthropologists, geologists, biologists, and meteorologists all will passionately attest to Earth's dynamic nature. Yet when we actually witness Earth changing, we soil our pants with worry that we've somehow put a dent in the fragile, tender haven of life that is our Earth.

Baloney.

99% of species to ever exist are extinct. Why? Earth is dynamic. It changes every time you blink. Sea levels rise and fall, glaciers melt and freeze, continents drift apart and collide , carbon cycles are altered, and life just goes on its merry way in spite of it. Any scientist worth his BS (pun intended) will wholeheartedly agree to this. Yet at the first sign of a changing ecosystem, all is lost! Mankind has destroyed Mother Earth from whence he came!

Chill out guys. First off, we're not even sure the climate is changing at all. Second, we're not even sure if this only-probably-existent change is our fault. Third, even if this is our fault, we're only speeding up the inevitable change in climate that results from living on a living planet. On a dime Mother Nature has decided to pump out many times the CO2 we could ever hope to emit in the whole Era of Man in an instant- through volcanoes (obligatory dramatic supervolcano pic to the left). She has done it many times. And guess what? The whole planet is flourishing with life.

So now back to my point about the scientific community being excessively prideful. It is only hubris before Science and nature that would lead to such a universal consensus that mankind is soooo powerful as to even be able to dent the world's ecosystem, and that is what's causing so much suffering. Newsflash, guys- catastrophe is the story of life. Catastrophe is life, and it's been that way since the very first bacteria started wiggling around (or since Adam and Eve partook of the Forbidden Fruit, if you're feeling fundamental).

Are we really so prideful that we think we are free from famine, drought, and flood and that we the mighty Homo sapien is the only entity powerful enough to cause such suffering? Are we so arrogant that we think spitting out a few bits of CO2 can stop life from thriving? Yes, it will make ice caps melt, coral reefs become barren, shorelines change, and people become displaced. This is nothing new. We as a species are guilty of supreme hubris in thinking that the dubious effects of our proliferation are anything more than a hiccup in the cycle of life.

I decided to keep it broad this time around for fear of making it too long and boring. If anyone is interested, I could go into the specifics of how life is adapting to the changing environment.