NO, THE PLANET IS NOT IMPERILED

“a time to start shifting our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path
“

"Our planet is in peril and we need to be bold,"

“I don’t think people wake up in the morning, whether they’re in the agricultural business or the energy sector, and say, ‘Well what can I do today to kill the planet?’”

I know, I know, I’m a literalist, but statements like those above that I pulled from the internet bug me. According to journalists, bloggers, presidential candidates and many others our planet is imperiled, being destroyed by climate change. No, it is not. 

Planet Earth will continue to be Planet Earth until some cataclysmic event billions of years from now turns it to cosmic particles. What is imperiled is human society, in the various forms it takes around the globe today. (Note that I am focused on humans, and acknowledge that many plant and animal species are also at peril.)  Human-induced climate change has been continuing apace, as predicted by the scientific community, and the effects are clearly visible today, in both subtle and catastrophic ways. Already thousands/millions of people are being displaced by drought, rising sea level, altered weather patterns and other changed climate realities. These societal disruptions will get worse, not better, in the decades ahead. 

Humanity will persist, at least for the foreseeable future (it is a fact of evolution that the animals we call “human” or Homo sapiens will not exist in the future on Planet Earth). Human societies as they exist today are very disimilar from societies of the past, and those of the future will also not resemble those of today. The human species is very adaptable, and societies will change as the climate changes, adapting to new environmental conditions. What comes to mind are the many variations of a dystopian world in science fiction, and these do not seem so far-fetched to us today. 

Those humans who are in positions of societal power or influence and who deny climate change, whether because they simply don’t believe it, they profit from it, or denial gives them political power, are the greatest danger today. The results of their inaction, or negative actions promotes the negative effects of climate change on society, and has contributed to the rightward, authoritarian shift in politics seen around the world today. The Trump phenomenon cannot be divorced from ignoring or denying climate change. 

The global society of humans on Planet Earth has made choices resulting in the climate situation of today. As a world community we could pull together and drastically change the way we use and live on the planet in order to slow the effects of a changing climate. People, organizations and nations are engaged in these efforts; however, progress is slow or in the wrong direction. There is hope, but the odds are far from favorable.

Perhaps the speech writers and spinners in our society have decided that “the planet is in peril” is a message that gains more traction than “human societies are in peril.” In my mind, however, that message hides the fact that all of us, as members of society, need to consider and decide the kinds of societies we want for ourselves and future generations. We have little control over future social and political conditions, but we do have a measure of control over the changing climate. 

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