This subject has been gaining a growing share of media attention lately, and it's hardly surprising when so many people are talking about it amongst themselves.

For those of us 40 years and older it seems as though a change is taking place that can be compared to what we knew when we were younger. In other words: A series of rapid, questionable changes. As someone in this group I too can comment on the changes within my lifetime. However, I am not a scientist and can only reference my point of view against the body of scientific information floating around. Which ultimately gives me two choices:

1) Consider that the earth is a large and complicated object. Accept that it is being measured by people - myself included - with their own viewpoint, or agenda (be it positive or negative) who are considering the subject from a very small time scale of four hundred vs. four billion years where the main question becomes: Is this long enough to produce a valid opinion, or base a scientific fact upon?

2) Calculate the effect of the earths population. 6 billion people who are consuming enormous amounts of resources day in and day out. Who are starting hundreds of millions of cars daily. Who are burning forests on a planetary scale. 6 billion people who are polluting their cities so significantly that the smoke plumes can be seen from space. A population which is creating dams so great that the lakes behind them are large enough to be seen from the moon.

Clearly, we are now able to determine human habitation on the earths surface from another planet. And when humans are capable of producing weapons powerful enough to destroy square miles (or kilometers) of the earths surface in one blast is it really any wonder that humanity is now seen to be in direct conflict with earths natural systems?

Like everyone else I honestly don't know. However, when I see weather reports of snow in southern California and yet winter has definitely not come to northern Europe (thousands of miles to the north) where we are now only weeks away from spring I'm left to wonder: Is this an anomaly, or a sign of something?

Learn more about this author, Rob Dacosta.
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