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Life on Earth: What Has Been, What Will Be
Climate change forces us to find life beyond our assumptions
“The planet you think you’re living on no longer exists,” says Ben See, a Paris-based high school literature teacher and climate activist.
The climate we have today is—already and increasingly—unsafe for human life. The ecological web is fraying, and that web is the only place in which we live.
Cutting down trees, spreading chemicals through air, water, and soil, excessive artificial light and sound, extracting what’s deep underground, dumping plastic in the ocean—all of this extinguishes life. CO2 emissions from burning oil and gas are causing a change in climate. Beyond a certain point, we won’t be able to adjust to it. Little lifestyle changes won’t be enough. Government-backed industrial overhauls won’t be enough.
Food doesn’t come from a grocery store. Food comes from nature. If we can’t grow food, that situation will be beyond human adaptation.
Ben See links to an article by Julia K. Steinberger last March: Once we reach 2°C of warming, “adaptation to impacts is simply not feasible.” What avoiding…
