JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
Phaeton's Reins
The human hand in climate change
Kerry Emanuel
Two strands of environmental philosophy run through the course
of human history. The first holds that the natural state of the
universe is one of infinite stability, with an unchanging earth
anchoring the predictable revolutions of the sun, moon, and stars.
Every scientific revolution that challenged this notion, from
Copernicus’ heliocentricity to Hubble’s expanding
universe, from Wegener’s continental drift to Heisenberg’s
uncertainty and Lorenz’s macroscopic chaos, met with fierce
resistance from religious, political, and even scientific hegemonies.
The second strand also sees the natural state of the universe as a stable one but holds that it has become destabilized through human actions. The great floods are usually portrayed in religious traditions as attempts by a god or gods to cleanse the earth of human corruption. Deviations from cosmic predictability, such as meteors and comets, were more often viewed as omens than as natural phenomena. In Greek mythology, the scorching heat of Africa and the burnt skin of its inhabitants were attributed to Phaeton, an offspring of the sun god Helios, who, having lost a wager to his son, was obliged to allow him to drive the sun chariot across the sky. In this primal environmental catastrophe, Phaeton lost control and fried the earth, killing himself in the process.
These two fundamental ideas have permeated many cultures through much of history. They strongly influence views of climate change to the present day.
This article has become a book! To read more, buy it now, here
Comments
It is all here.
http://www.ourchiropractic.com/climate-change
"The Cold Truth about Climate Change"
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/27/global_warming_deniers/index.html
This article shows the extent of the fossil fuel industry's PR campaign to muddy the public debate about climat change with disinformation and psuedo science.
http://www.desmogblog.com/slamming-the-climate-skeptic-scam
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11654
http://climateprogress.org
http://www.realclimate.org/
http://energysolutionswecanbelievein.blogspot.com