Year 2, Month 12, Day 27: A Long, Long, Time Ago In A Galaxy Right Here

The North Island Gazette (BC) runs a vaguely philosophical column on Canada’s withdrawal from Kyoto and all that it implies:

Canada is the first country to formally pull out of the Kyoto Accord. Of course with this comes all the politics of lies sitting under the tongue like salted honey from all political corners.

Elizabeth May of the Green Party says it’s going to be a disaster.

Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien used good old fear factoring when he said: “Next may be a woman’s right to choose, or gay marriage,” implying the Conservatives will shut them down.

The drama of Earth’s climate has unfolded over such a long period of time it is almost impossible to comprehend as humans, as a species we barely register in the annals of Earth’s history.

If climate history was condensed into one year, the entire evolution of our species would have occurred just over four hours.

It’s nice to see someone writing about timescale issues. Sent December 23:

Most human endeavors operate on short timescales: months, years, decades. Consequently, it’s extremely difficult for us to grasp the implications of the changes industrialized civilization has made to the atmosphere — implications unfolding over centuries and millennia. A thousand years ago Europe was in the middle of the Dark Ages. A thousand years from now, the CO2 we’ve emitted over the past century will start to dissipate. If our species is lucky, by 4011 our descendants will learn about the Hot Ages in history class.

As a citizen of the country with the world’s highest per capita greenhouse emissions, I am sorry to see Canada joining the United States in rejecting meaningful policies for addressing the coming climate catastrophe. The corporate forces of climate-change denial have a strong hold on the news and opinion media of both countries, and are equally enmeshed in their politics — a recipe for disaster.

Warren Senders