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pogo4pres -> RE: 2010 The Hottest year On Record (1/13/2011 7:47:04 PM)
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FR
I repost this from the Al Gore thread to here:
I quote from Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park, pages 367, 368, & 369. the conversation is between John Hammond, (JH) and Dr Malcolm, (DM)
JH: "Well at least disaster is averted"
DM: "What disaster is that?"
JH: "Well at least they didn't get free and overrun the world"
DM: "You were worried about that?"
JH: "Surely that is what was at stake, these animals , lacking predators, might get out and destroy the planet"
DM: "You EGOMANIACAL IDIOT, do you have any idea what you are talking about? You think you can destroy the planet" My, what intoxicating power you must have. You can not destroy this planet. You can't even come close."
JH: " Most people believe that the planet is in jeopardy"
DM: "Well it's not"
JH: "All the experts agree our planet is in trouble."
DM: "Let me tell you about our planet. Our planet is four and a half BILLION years old. There has been life on this planet for nearly that long. Three point eight billion years. The first bacteria. And, later the first multicellular animals, then the first complex creatures, in the sea, on the land. Then the great sweeping ages of animals--the amphibians, the dinosaurs, the mammals, each lasting millions upon millions of years. Great dynasties of creatures arising, flourishing, dying away. All this happening against a background of continuous and violent upheaval, mountain ranges thrust up and eroding away, cometary impacts, volcanic eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving...endless constant and violent change...even today the greatest geographical feature on the planet comes from two great continents colliding, buckling to make the Himalayan mountain range, over millions of years. This planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us."
JH: "Just because it has lasted a long time doesn't mean it is permanent. If there was a radiation accident...."
DM: "Suppose there was, lets say it was a bad one, and all the plants and animals died, and the earth was clicking hot for a hundred thousand years. Life would survive somewhere---under the soil, or perhaps frozen in the Arctic ice. And after all those years, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would again spread over the planet. The evolutionary process would begin again. It might take a few billion years for life to regain its present variety. And of course it would be very different from what it is now. But the earth would survive our folly. Life would survive our folly. Only WE think it wouldn't.
/Snip
JH: "So what are you saying? We shouldn't care about the environment?"
DM: "No of course not"
JH: "Then what?"
DM: "Lets be clear. THE PLANET IS NOT IN JEOPARDY. WE ARE IN JEOPARDY. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet---or to save it. BUT WE MIGHT HAVE THE POWER TO SAVE OURSELVES."
Those three pages, boys and girls amount to the single most succinct summation of our current situation I have ever read. Not even the current science is so clear on the point, WE ARE IN JEOPARDY, "the earth will heal herself long after we are gone. We are trying to save our own sorry asses."*
Succinctly,
Some Knucklehead in NJ
* Apologies to Graham Nash for cribbing his quote on the environment in the last sentence.
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