Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
tion on our watch would be immoral. We have been given fair warning
about the risks, and we cannot plead ignorance and inadvertence. The
evolution of polar bears, monarch butterfl ies, cutthroat trout, South Afri-
can protea—and, yes, even those ingenious but irritating mosquitoes—is
the greatest wonder of the natural world. To undo a substantial part of
that heritage in a century is a terrible step. As the philosopher Arthur
Schopenhauer wrote, “The assumption that animals are without rights
and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral signifi cance is a
positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity.”
16
This ends the discussion of particularly intractable impacts of cli-
mate change. They are not necessarily catastrophic for humans, al-
though they are likely to have grave consequences for other species and
precious natural systems. The main obstacle is that humans are unable
to effectively control the impacts in these areas. Perhaps, someday, soci-
eties will be able to do what King Canute could not and hold back the
seas. Perhaps future biologists can regenerate the dodo bird from an
earlier era and revive the Arctic fox should it go extinct. But until that
day, the large-scale impacts of climate change and elevated CO
2
levels on
natural systems are likely to be pervasive, changing the natural world
in ways that will be unwelcome and even perilous.
