The Future is Wild: A Natural History of the Future
The Future is Wild is a very interesting book as it provides us with a peek into the planet earth 200 million years from now. However, the most fascinating aspect of this book is how the authors rely on the knowledge of the past to build the image of the future. This logical linkage between the known past and the mysterious future takes our imagination to its limit, and yet does not cross the limits of our reasoning and logic. The book begins by explaining briefly the history of the planet earth and the frequent patterns of evolution in order to set up the readers’ minds, and then it jumps smoothly five, a hundred, and two hundred million years in the future. During these jumps, many changes occur as completely new species evolve while others go extinct. Also, the shape of the continents keeps changing till they all form another single landmass just like they did in the far past. It is really remarkable how the earth had a supercontinent during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, then it broke apart into several smaller continents, and after that, 200 million years in the future, theses several continents rejoin again to form another supercontinent. It is as if history repeats itself but now it gives a chance to new species to take over the planet. Another interesting, and yet sad, piece of evidence about the planet earth is that the Human era that we live in is actually part of a ten thousands warm spell in a hundred thousand years of what they call a glacial cycle of an Ice Age. This is interesting because it indicates that no matter what human beings do, this interglacial period is only temporary, and that it is scientifically impossible to prevent the planet from being mostly covered by ice in the next five million years. This fact alone is sufficient to motivate humans to try to find other inhabitable planets in order save themselves from being extinct.
What I really do not agree with in this book is:
The Future is Wild assumes that the Human era will defiantly end with a period of mass extinction resulting from a combination of human influence and natural phenomena. With this claim, the book eliminates any possibility of surviving the Ice Age.
The second future envisioned scenario by Nash is that of the ‘garden scenario.’ In this situation, humans seem to have achieved their absolute potential in technological ways. Rather than living as one with the environment humans will have replaced necessary environmental processes with artificial ones, or eliminating all things unnecessary to personal survival. Diversity will have been eliminated and only wilderness will aid human civilization. This scenario could never happen because the food web of the Earth is co complex, by removing ...
According to the World Bank’s report, climatologists predict greenhouse gases will cause temperatures to rise 7.2 degrees before the next century (par. 8). While the rise in temperature might seem trivial, Scranton elaborates on the detrimental effects this change would cause by quoting James Clapper. Mr. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, argues that extreme weather disasters will “increasingly disrupt food and energy markets, exacerbating state weakness, forcing human migrations, and triggering riots, civil disobedience, and vandalism” (par. 7). Dr. Scranton mentions these sources in order to convince the audience that an increase of only a few degrees can have a devastating impact that will inevitably leave the planet radically different during this epoch; the current epoch we live in, named the Anthropocene, is a term invented by geologist and scientists for the epoch that is “characterized by the arrival of the human species as a geological force” (par. 10). The name of the epoch inspired Scranton to title the article “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene” since it reaffirms his claim that we must accept that the future will not be the same as the present. Furthermore, Scranton includes a book in his article written by geophysicist David Archer incase readers remain skeptical of the scientific evidence with
One of the remarkable Tim Flannery’s contributions to society is the fact that he raises an awareness of climate change so that people think climate change regards as clime catastrophe. In the book, The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change, Tim Flannery warned carefully and rationally to skeptical people on climate change. These people believe that increase of temperature on the earth is simply natural phenomenon since temperature has not been constant in whole history of the earth. Tim describes that this belief has tended to put the earth severe stage. In accordance with Gaia theory, this planet is an organism to purify by itself, but human being is likely to force it to lead to disaster. Tim explains that humans have been living in glacial epoch that the average temperature is approximately 14 Celsius and even rise of 1 Celsius will bring us anomalous situation (Flannery 2006, p.11). He warns that the temperature change will make difficult environment to survive in the earth. As Tim Flannery has well-informed academic knowledge about zoology and sufficient field experience, especially in Papua New Guinea, he explains wide various
We all have curious questions and speculations about what is going to happen on Earth in the next few centuries. We all wonder what is going to be affected and how much of it is going to be affected by the rising speed of global warming. In this book, “The Long Emergency,” by James Howard Kunstler, he discusses what he thinks about “what is happening, what will happen, or what is likely to happen,” rather than what he wishes would happen in the future. He discusses his extreme concerns about the “modern” way of living, in which it may result in a depression for the economy. Kunstler negatively exaggerates many factors that can lead to what many people may usually think to be the “end of the world,” or an apocalypse. The book is mainly centered on the struggles of the cheap-oil age ending, and rebuilding our society with other energy sources for a sustainable way of living. After each argument, it seems that the foundation Kunstler constantly refers back to is that cheap oil is running out.
Once the author made his view clear, he goes on to display possible scenarios of how human existence can change within the next millennium. He proposed four possible scenarios. The first scenario that Nash discusses, the “wasteland scenario” depicts
The earth is about four billion years old, within the span of these four billion years; the earth has become accustomed to various transitions and dissimilar geological and environmental permutations. The Ice age period has been the subject of much debate regarding these various transitions. As the rate at which geological disasters on earth continue to intensify we begin to ask ourselves whether it is possible for an ice age to spontaneously occur overnight. Nonetheless, In order for such a disaster to persist, massive improbable geological events would have to occur and graft coherently which is evidently and scientifically impossible. The notion that an ice age can occur overnight is implausible for the reason being that: Global warming is on a evidential rise , chances of catastrophic volcanic activity as deteriorated and the earth's orbit is at a period of solar radiation absorption.
...be brought to light. In the next thirty years, one fifth of all species will become extinct and in the next one hundred years, 50% of all species will be extinct. This is a staggering statistic and the horror of this is that one species, the human, is the cause of this mass extinction.
In recent decades, the contentious issues surrounding climate change and the corresponding effects it likely exerts upon contemporary civilization has developed to become one of the most pressing areas of concern afflicting humanity (Armstrong, 1). Currently, climate change has started to demonstrate its potentially calamitous consequences upon human subsistence practices, and has even begun to alter the very environments that entire societies reside in, theoretically endangering them in both instances (Armstrong, 1). Though the hindrances inherent in climate change are potentially devastating to the preservation of modern society, the problem of climate change itself is not one that is exclusive to the contemporary era. Rather, the harmful
In, The Fate of the Earth by, Jonathan Schell, he starts with the extinction of dinosaurs then moves onto how it’s not possible to judge on human extinction. He also talks about how the extinction of animals and how we have learned from our mistakes. He states how we live, then we die. And how different catastrophes could kill everyone or how they could slowly become extinct from those catastrophes. He mainly talks about population and how the extinction of human beings and once we are extinct we are done.
Americas by 14,000 ago” (O’Brien 12), after large portions of North America encountered the last ice age, which
Scranton believes that human beings are killing present life by ignoring the effects of global warming on the world. He continues to warn the reader that change is coming regardless of what people do now and that they human race must prepare for what is inevitably coming, as it will be the collapse of global civilization as it is known. Scranton states that this time we are living in, the anthropocene, presents humans with multiple challenges but mostly, “what it means to be human” (page 234). How to control the inevitable
Climate change is arguably one of the most controversial topics in modern science, and undoubtedly one of the most important. Ongoing research has shown that the planet’s climatic temperature has increased slightly yet significantly over the past century. Studies have also found that this warming can be attributed to human activities since the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As time goes on and humans continue their harmful actions, climate change and its related effects will continue to negatively impact nearly all living organisms.
In Dipesh Chakrabarty’s essay, “The Climate of History: Four Theses,” he begins with “…the proposition that anthropogenic explanations of climate change spell the collapse of the age-old humanist distinction between natural history and human history.” With this initial statement, Chakrabarty declares that the advent of manmade climate change in the anthropocene, humans can no longer be considered separately from nature as they had been previously segregated by Enlightenment and western thinking. In other words, “humanism,” or human-centered thinking is neither relevant nor reasonable in the face of global climate change. According to Chakrabarty, since human and natural history are both intrinsically tied together, the fate of mankind is now
If we compare the present with the past, if we trace events at all epochs to their causes, if we examine the elements of human growth, we find that Nature has raised us to what we are, not by fixed laws, but by provisional expedients, and that the principle which in one age effected the advancement of a nation, in the next age retarded the mental movement, or even destroyed it altogether. War, despotism, slavery, and superstition are now injurious to the progress of Europe, but they were once the agents by which progress was produced. By means of war the animated life was slowly raised upward in the scale, and quadrupeds passed into man. By means of war the human intelligence was brightened, and the affections were made intense; weapons and tools were invented; foreign wives were captured, and the marriages of blood relations were forbidden; prisoners were tamed, and the women set free; prisoners were exchanged, accompanied with presents; thus commerce was established, and thus, by means of war, men were first brought into amicable relations with one another. By war the tribes were dispersed all over the world, and adopted various pursuits according to the conditions by which they were surrounded. By war the tribes were compressed into the nation. It was war which founded the Chinese Empire. It was war which had locked Babylonia, and Egypt, and India. It was war which developed the genius of Greece. It was war which planted the Greek language in Asia, and so rendered possible the spread of Christianity. It was war which united the world in peace from the Cheviot Hills to the Danube and the Euphrates. It was war which saved Europe from the quietude of China. It was war which made Mecca the centre of the East. It was war which united the barons in the Crusades, and which destroyed the feudal system.
The hottest recorded temperature was in 2005 which matched the temperature in 1998. Twice in the last decade we've had the hottest temperature on average ever recorded throughout history. Coincidence. I think not. The snows of the Kilimanjaro have basically vanished and in a couple decades Glacier National park is going to need a new name because by 2030 there will be no glaciers left in the whole park. The great Greenland icecaps are melting at an alarming pace, and sliding into the sea. Your right, who cares it's not like its happening near us. But by 2100 all our coastal states will look like Venice including ours. You won?t be alive but your children and grandchildren will. The sea level is expected to rise up to 23 inches in the next decade. There has been a 100 percent increase in intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms since 1970 according to a 2005 MIT study. How much more evidence do we need before someone does something about this? For anyone who cares at all about the future, the gradual transformation of our earth is turning into a human-furnace that makes terrorism look like a game of monopoly. Think I'm kidding? By 2050, 15-37% of all plant and animal species could be extinct. Meaning it will be harder for plants to produce photosynthesis. No big right? Wrong. Without photosynthesis, oxygen can?t be made. Most of us in this room will be in our late 60?s by then with children and grandchildren. What does that mean for them? The air will be harder to breath and the temperature of earth will have increased by 2 degrees Fahrenheit. By 2050 up to 38% of water will be unable to hold underwater species because of rising temperature.