The same day as my last posting, The New York Times Book Review ran a review of Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. This review was written by Al Gore (“Without a Trace,” Feb. 16, 2014), and it is well worth reading.
In it, Gore states that up to half (“20-50 percent”) of all species on earth could disappear within this century! He states that oceans have become “more acidic than they have been in millions of years.” And he points out that “Everywhere the intricate interconnections crucial to sustaining life are increasingly being pulled apart.”
Concerning an esteemed scientist who previously worked at NASA, this is what he writes:
“According to a conservative and unchallenged calculation by the climatologist James Hansen, the man-made pollution already in the atmosphere traps as much extra heat energy every 24 hours as would be released by the explosion of 400,000 Hiroshima-class nuclear bombs.”
But will this wake humanity up and get us questioning our tremendously tunnel vision-like, anthropocentric mindset? I doubt it. It’s been half a century since Rachel Carson passed away, and we are no closer towards saving the planet.