On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, Jeff Owens wrote:
> A friend (Kerry) sent me this article about glaciers and
> it left me feeling confused. I don't know whether to
> be shocked or discount the facts. Has anyone else
> heard about this?
Not this one in particular but I have been hearing versions of this for
10-15 years. I think I was in late highschool or early university when I
first heard the glaciers were melting, and first heard about global
warming, and the coming ice age. All of this will happen in 10 years, 20
years, 50 years, 200 years. I've heard it all till I have been numb and
frozen with despair, and after a great struggle I have walked past the
despair.
The world is changing. Why would we expect it to stay the same just
because we have built structures and societies based on illusions of
permanence. We have sped up the change, global warming, that would
have happened anyway. A slower change would have been better in terms of
our ability to cope as a species.
I know that I cannot stop the melting of a glacier. That is done. The
pattern of warming is sufficiently advanced that there is no going back.
I doubt at this point we can even effectively do anything to slow it down.
I can only work to help people feel like they can make the changes
necessary to their mindset to reduce their overall impact on the world,
and to change their mindset to one of hope that we can adapt to life in a
changing world.
sph
Sandra P. Hoffman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.flora.org/sandra/
----------------------------
The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due,
not a garden swollen to a realm;
his own hands to use,
not the hands of others to command. --Sam Gamgee
