Throughout history Man has faced many threats but none has reached the global level posed by climate change today. The many causes have been highlighted and solutions proffered but are we shying away from one cause because it is considered almost taboo to discuss it?
It will surely never be enough to rely on cleaner energy technologies alone to stem Nature's indifference to Man's proposes. The source of the problem, Man, will not only need changing of long-treasured habits like meat-based diets but a much greater effort to control population numbers responsibly.
We all know that in developed countries the social fabric and high incomes have seen reproductive rates fall to at or below replacement levels but that is far from so in developing countries where social and religious mores play a role. There is no reason to believe that if these countries reach a higher level of prosperity that they too will not feel the need to maintain higher reproductive levels but it will need non-economic changes. The migration flows, for example, are not only fuelled by economic pressures but political and religious clashes. The former will not be relieved until misgoverance and corruption have been excised and the latter will hold back economic progress.
Comprehensive policies to fight climate change should, therefore, include demographic, political, social and religious changes if the cleaner energy technologies proposed are to have any chance of success. If not, Nature may do it for us in frightful ways.
Nature reflects the four horsemen of the apocalypse?
No comments:
Post a Comment