There's a two-person tent on my campus green. It is dwarfed by the brick dorm buildings, and the towering exotic tree species to its right and left. Ironically, this school prides itself in being an arboretum, but really most of those trees became invasive after being transported from native countries like Japan. They dominate our campus and the surrounding woods now; they've driven the endemic breeds to extinction.
Why there's a climate crisis: It's simple. Electricity emits carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. As it builds up, it prevents more and more solar radiation from escaping back into space. The planet warms. Right now there is an atmospheric carbon dioxide level of about 385 parts per million.
Why some people don't care: 90% of the species that ever lived on this planet are extinct. We are destined for the same. It's natural and we can't do anything to stop it.
Why some people care: It will get too hot for humans to survive. The safe upper limit is 350 ppm CO2, but levels only keep climbing, and there is a very low chance of leveling off before damage is done. My generation's grandchildren are going to live in a very different world than we do today.
Why I'm vegan: If Americans stopped using the electricity it takes to produce meat, chocolate, and cheese products, atmospheric carbon dioxide would level off.
Why there's a tent in the middle of the campus: to prove to people who don't think it's possible that humans can live happily, healthily, and comfortably without electricity and running water. Students and a handful of faculty members alternate this as their home every night. A journal sits in the tent and serves as a document of the project (The girl before me wrote that washing her face with cold water made her skin feel like marble. The professor who slept there the next night recorded the strangest place he ever camped- on an airplane runway above the arctic circle).
The planet will be fine. If you're a fan of the human species, and you think 200,000 years isn't long enough, then it's us you should worry about.
My roommate is at his desk on the other side of the thin stark wall we share shouting at his computer, which projects a live basketball game to him. Try to tell him any of this? He'll pretend he knows, take another bite of his BLT sandwich and go back to shouting.
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Wow, that's brilliant. You really made me think. Keep talking to your roomate - as smart as you are he's bound to listen sooner or later (if he ever stops shouting at his computer).
ReplyDeleteKDT, Your thoughts are so realized and soundly put. Keep going. . . It's disheartening to think that we are all doomed- but perhaps there is a way to break through that wall of indifference with your clear and timely perspective (especially for those of us that are slow on the uptake). P. S. I am going to switch to cloth napkins.
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