Basic conceptual problems due to being in a state of alarm
International efforts against climate change historically focused on the
mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere as this is the
origin of the problem. This is analogous to the moral obligation of
conserving cultural heritage or natural parks as human activities have
an adverse effect on our thin and already fragile atmosphere. The moral
maxim of the land ethic defined by Callicott as “A thing is right when
it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”11Callicott, J.
Baird (2014). Thinking Like a Planet: The Land Ethic and the
Earth Ethic . Oup Usa. pp. 3. provides us a reference for using
virtues such as humility and wonder towards nature and respecting our
climate as a life supporting and regulating system.
However, there are many actions that still threaten the integrity and
stability of nature and contradicts the findings of climate scientists.
Imagine a family taking a ferry in the Bosphorus Strait enjoying the
winds blowing the wings of seagulls and watching them diving in the
surface waters preying on fish. Independently of their orientation of
values which could be egoistic, hedonistic or biospheric, there is an
aesthetic value in their experience that contributes to their utility.
One might argue that seagulls are higher-level animals with their
beautiful feathers and athletic maneuvering capability which could be
considered for extension of the intrinsic value of humans. But science
shows that seagulls are at the top level of a complex web of relations
between the atmosphere and the oceans which all depend on tiny
phytoplanktons as the source of primary production. We can only notice
these phytoplanktons when their populations artificially bloom from
additional nutrient inputs to the oceans. However, they are also
affected by oceanic currents forming their habitat for production which
can be damaged as a result of human actions resulting in reduced primary
production.
When we take into consideration the temporal dimension of humans and
seagulls, scientific evidence presents different tracks for their
evolution. We know that birds as we know them evolved from their
ancestor theropod dinosaurs which struggled to survive the Cretaceous
mass extinction 60 million years ago. Humans along with other mammals
took this mass extinction event as an opportunity and evolved throughout
the oceans and lands of earth growing in their population and their
skills for adaptation. Although the ancestors of humans and seagulls
were rivals during their geological history, their destiny during the
Holocene epoch both depend on the extents of a future climate
change22References to the information in this section on
continental reconstructions, mass extinctions and biodiversity are
included in the EarthViewer educational software which can be accessed
fromhttps://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/earthviewer..
Including the abiotic systems to this relationship spatially focusing on
the Bosphorus Strait reduces the temporal scale to approximately 7000
years before present with the formation of the dynamic system between
the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara after the retreat of glacials
towards higher latitudes. Long before our human civilizations emerged
and flourished, nature was both the source and the locus of value
through the relationships providing homage to humans and their
communities with nature. The earth has already faced five mass
extinction events during its geological history each time recovering
with a higher number of biodiversity. However, the earth is entering a
new geological epoch after the Holocene while preventing climate change
focuses on utilizing the welfare for mitigating and adapting to climate
change.
The family taking the ferry boat knowing themselves, nature and their
geological history would be aware of the requirement to conserve the
integrity, stability and beauty of these relationships. As humans are
only a temporal agent in the complex web of geological and biological
relations we have no other option but to respect nature with humility
and wonder towards the magnificence of life which originated long before
our evolution. Our communities have extended to include the
biogeochemical interactions of the earth as we have evolved to become on
of the main radiative forcing on our earth. As humans struggle to
survive during the geological epochs of our earth, our moral
responsibility is towards our own species whereas our survival depends
on our relationship with nature.
Yet our efforts for the protection of the climate are ineffective as
surface temperatures on land systems have risen nearly twice as much
33IPCC, 2019: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change
and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification,
land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and
greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [P.R. Shukla et al.
(eds.)]. In press. and oceans have taken up 90% of the excess heat
44IPCC, 2019: Summary for Policymakers. In: IPCC Special
Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [H.-O.
Portner et al. (eds.)]. In press. from our warming climate system
since the pre-industrial period. As a result, climate science focuses
both on mitigative efforts for the protection of the unknown future but
also on adaptative efforts for protection of the immediate posterity.
However, the adaptation choices range from socially acceptable planting
of mangroves in shallow coasts to prevent tsunamis to socially
controversial geoengineering methods for balancing the radiative energy
budget of the earth (Gifford, 2011). But our efforts to mitigate the
impacts of climate change require international collaboration based on
individual preferences to reduce carbon emissions.
The scenario development for climate change is criticized for neglecting
the feed-backs from nature to human socio-economic development (Rosaet al. , 2017). These feed-backs could be positive on a
utilitarian scale in case nature services contribute to the development
or negative in case of irreversible damage such as the collapse of
fisheries or landscape changes turn fertile into non-arable land. Also,
these pathways still resemble the continuation of human history whereas
the history of nature already moved from taming the non-human wilderness
into protecting our human environment in the 20th century.