Why Doesn’t the Media Get It?

New York, NY — A surreal walk today in Central Park. A bedraggled sign warns, “Thin ice — Danger” at one of the seeps near the bird sanctuary. It’s 72 degrees outside, so any ice must be very thin indeed. A hundred yards ahead the Zamboni machines at the park’s skating rink strive earnestly to freeze up a skatable surface, all the while pushing a bow wave of ice melt ahead of them, like amphibious landing craft hitting the beach.

The Zambonis’ plight makes a good metaphor for what we as a species are trying to do. Climate has always been bigger than technology. The deep human struggle pits cultural and technological evolution against the challenge of climate — and our winning strategy has centered on our flexibility. We have learned to live within the fixed cycles and normal weather patterns in diverse places. We’ve adapted both to the freezing cold of Baffin Island and to the scorching heat of in the Kalahari Desert — not to mention Manhattan. We’ve proven our ability to thrive in a wide variety of climate patterns. Underscore patterns.

Climate, as differentiated from weather, is by its very nature predictable. At least it was. Now our technology of ignition and combustion — burning fossil fuels — is putting the climate on steroids. If this is a war, we are about to unilaterally disarm. Global warming is taking away the reason we’ve been successful in adapting to climate — the patterns and predictability.

Sierra Club