Photo Credit: mirror.co.uk

It is unfortunate that it takes a natural disaster like the earthquake in Haiti for the international community to come together. Perhaps if there were more natural disasters caused by global warming there would have been more accomplished in Copenhagen at the most recent summit on climate change. It seems a growing trend in international politics is to only react when there is a disaster. There seems to be no thought invested in preventing the disaster. Not that an earthquake can be prevented, but global warming can be. And although I am using a horrible tragedy to shamelessly discuss global warming, the prospect of global warming happening could wipe out most of the northern hemisphere. Is there a plan in place to deal with that kind of tragedy? Is there a plan in place to deal with the billions of displaced people suddenly clamoring into the South? I doubt it. We will be just that, clamoring on in, busting over the Rio Grande.

If you’re unfamiliar with the science, here is a quick lesson. We, the northern hemisphere, owe our climate to the North Atlantic current. As the polar ice caps melt, this alters the temperature of the Atlantic ocean which will shut down the North Atlantic current. The last time this happened was the dawn of the last ice age. Now I know us Canadians can handle cold weather, but we cannot handle the sudden onslaught of an ice age, unless you are Jake Gyllenhall and your dad is Dennis Quaid – then you’re good. But seriously, we up here have yet to really feel Mother Nature’s wrath and have no intentions of wanting to. I pity those in Haiti, but I’m glad I live up here in cold, earthquake-less Canada when I see images like those of Port au Prince plastered on the news every night. However, I get the feeling we are pushing our luck with Mother Nature and she’s becoming a little ticked. And really, can you blame her? We have acres upon acres of land reserved just for garbage just because we can, because we have that much free land. We’ve done major damage to her poor physique and she has every right to lash out – but, this cannot happen. I’m not prepared for an Ice Age, but I know from watching all the Ocean’s movies, that luck only lasts so long.

This disaster in Haiti, if there is any lesson to be learned from it, is a perfect example of Mother Nature at her finest, most unpredictable self. In almost Zeus-like nature, she strikes down hard and fast and without mercy. We here up north complain about our cold weather, but we haven’t even come close to feeling the wrath of that crazy Mother Nature. However, if we continue on our polluting path, and I say ‘we’ because it is the Northern hemisphere that is responsible for a significant portion of the pollution that is pumped into the atmosphere, we will feel her merciless wrath. If you’ve seen An Inconvenient Truth or The Day After Tomorrow, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Now I know the Southern hemisphere isn’t free of any blame in the matter either, there is plenty of blame to go around. However, seeing as the solutions are already in front of us, there is no excuse, we all share the blame equally. Fuel-efficient cars, eco-friendly homes, cleaner sources for power generation such as solar or wind – or how ’bout cold fusion? Am I the only one who’s seen The Saint? Elisabeth Shue sounded so convincing she stated that it would be the end of pollution – we could at least look into it. But long story short, the answers are right in front of us, we just need to make the right choices.

Alberta alone emits more pollution that some small countries, and judging by more expansion in the northern oil sands, this will likely not change. But the world needs oil like Keith Richards needs illegal substances. North Americans in particular, need a whole lotta oil. And the more we continue to abuse our ability to drive anywhere in gas guzzling SUV’s or trucks, crank the heat instead of putting on a sweater and having those extra showers just to warm up, the more we are pushing our luck. We’ve already started a war over oil, just to continue our viscous habit, we do not need to ignore warning signs Mother Nature has been gracious enough to give us. Melting polar ice caps, crazy extreme temperatures, air so poisonous it’s breathed through a mask – these seem like fairly obvious signs. There are some pretty smart people up here in the North, I don’t see why these signs have still gone unheeded. I mean, there’s talk, but talk is cheap and doesn’t affect the economy. But the larger problem here is, if we don’t do anything, or give a half-hearted effort just to appease the lobbyists, there will be no economy to affect. Just ice, and lots of it.

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Tags: climate change, copenhagen summit, haiti earthquake, mother nature

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.