Climate Change: The Consequences of the Changing Climate May Still Take Us by Surprise!

By Margaret Bannan

This book is written for ordinary people who want to understand global warming, the changing climate and how it is impacting on humanity, ecosystems, and biodiversity. It offers a simple but comprehensive overview of how we came to be in an environmental emergency tending towards environmental catastrophe and what we must do to mitigate the worst consequences of the changing climate and environmental degradation. This book is written in plain English, not scientific jargon, to make it accessible to everyone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781984508454

Margaret Bannan

Dr Margaret Bannan, an environmental educator and activist for decades has followed the changes in our relationship with the natural world that have brought us as the human species to the point where life on Earth is catastrophically threatened. She has studied the demise of the environment from scientific projections and modelling of potential collapse to those projections and modelling coming to reality in real time. She was prompted to write this book because climate scientists are not being listened to and they are losing faith in people and governments to respond with immediate urgency to stem the tide of the impact on ecological systems by global warming and human domination of Earth’s gifts.

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Copyright © 2021 by Margaret Bannan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/12/2021

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1     Where Are We At in Our Understanding of Climate Change?

Chapter 2     Three Flashpoints for Alarm

•   Global Warming:

•   Pollutants in the Atmosphere:

•   Loss of Ecosystems and Biodiversity:

Chapter 3     Demystifying Our Environmental History

•   Mystery of Life

•   Hunters and Gatherers

•   Agricultural Revolution

•   Industrial Revolution

•   Technological Revolution

•   Environmental Crisis

Chapter 4     What, in a Nutshell, Is Happening to the Biomes?

•   Tundra Biome

•   Grasslands Biome

•   Desert Biome

•   Rainforest Biome

•   Taiga Biome

Chapter 5     What, in a Nutshell, Is Happening to Ecosystems?

•   Aquatic Ecology

•   Ocean Ecology

•   Air Ecology

•   Soil Ecology

•   Antarctic Ecology

•   Arctic Ecology

•   Water Ecology

•   Coral Reef Ecology

•   Wetlands Ecology

•   River Ecology

•   Glacier Ecology

•   Mangrove Ecology

•   Artesian Ecology

Chapter 6     What, in a Nutshell, Is Happening to Biodiversity?

•   Plant Biodiversity

•   Insect Biodiversity

•   Bird Biodiversity

•   Animal Biodiversity

•   Reptile Biodiversity

•   Ocean Fish Biodiversity

Chapter 7     The Laborious Turning of the Anthropocene Era

•   Anthropocene Era

•   Ecological Period

Chapter 8     What Are We Thinking?

•   Business as Usual

•   Psychology of Denial

•   Tipping Points

•   Societal Chaos

Chapter 9     Philosophy of Our Ecology

•   Everything Is Alive

•   Ecopsychology

•   Cosmology

•   Earth Ecology

•   Human Ecology

•   Ecological Self

•   Deep Ecology

Chapter 10   Assessing Change in Our Relationship with Nature

•   Ecological Footprint

•   Environmental Sustainability

•   Precautionary Principle

Chapter 11   Issues Worth a Good Look

•   Cradle to Cradle

•   Carbon Sinks

•   Advent of Plastic

•   Population Explosion

•   Environmental Refugees

•   Plight of Bees

•   Natural Disasters

•   Alternative Energy

•   Alternative Farming

Chapter 12   Spiritual Response

•   Science versus Religion

•   Science Invites All Religions to the Dance

•   Earth Spirituality

•   Spiritual Ecological Consciousness

•   Ecological Conversion

Chapter 13   We Are All in This Together

•   Join the Dance

•   A Way Forward

•   So what can I do?

Chapter 14   Recapping the Endgame

•   Ambassadors for a Hospitable Earth

Conclusion

This book is dedicated to climate scientists, our intellectual elite who hold the crystal ball that tells our future on Earth but who are not being heard. It is also dedicated to the youth of the world who are protesting for climate action. May the youth of the world be courageous and strong to persist indefinitely for urgent climate action.

INTRODUCTION

As I sit on my deck, I cannot see climate change. I cannot feel global warming; therefore, it is ‘not happening’. This book is a call to arms for all who are sleepwalking in the dark to the possible extinction of the cleverest species on Earth, us Homo sapiens, wise humans. It is important to note the reason I am writing this book; it is because climate scientists are losing hope and faith in us to respond to the greatest challenge of our human existence. People in Australia are, per capita, amongst the biggest environmental consumers and polluters on Earth, and it will be to our eternal shame if we do not fight for the health of our home planet for our children and grandchildren. It is not rocket science to work out how we can turn global warming around; climate scientists have given us the roadmap because they have been there in their research and modelling. We have the knowledge, we have the intelligence, and we have the technology, but we lack the ‘will’ to make the changes for a safe future; this is what is most frustrating for climate scientists in Australia, and it is typical of climate scientists in other countries as well. A downside and upside of addressing global warming and environmental degradation is that the youth and children are leading the charge. Young people have taken up the challenge; they can’t wait for us grown-ups to get it together in time to save us from a hostile Earth. All power, therefore, to the youth who are speaking out, striking, protesting, and rallying for us adults for a safer, more inhabitable Earth!

Throughout this book, I will refer to climate scientists as there are many scientists not involved in climate science who are perpetuating ‘fake news’, and they are quoted to allay people’s fears so that governments can continue on their merry way with burning fossil fuels while totally ignoring the science of climate change as well as the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity with impunity. Climate scientists have been telling us for decades that if we continue the course we are on, then all life on Earth as we know it is in mortal peril. We have had half a century of indecision, procrastination, and denial that things could get so bad. Climate scientists are reluctant to tell us how bad things are because they don’t want to scare us, and they get abused for being too dramatic, alarmist, and negative about our future.

We do not, in general, listen to the prophets in our midst. Perhaps we would rather listen to the shock jocks perpetrating and perpetuating a ‘good news’ story that human-induced climate change is just a conspiracy and that, like COVID-19, it will just go away. However, climate scientists hold the crystal ball that tells our future, and they are giving up on us. Some are planning not to have children because they know what the world is going to be like for their children, who will have to endure the consequences of unabated global heating or move their families to where they think they might have the best chance to survive. However, that will not be the answer because we know how people react when threatened, so no place on Earth will be safe. There are numerous hopeful environmental movements, but most of their efforts fall on deaf ears. It is like those in power are living in a dream world that all will be well if they ignore the problem. The islander people of the Pacific do not live that dream. They are already living the reality that their nation states are doomed by rising oceans that are heating up because of global warming. However, if you are reading this book, then you are predisposed to wanting to understand what is going on with our home planet.

We are normal people just doing our thing and going about our business as usual. We are people who live in countries that have enjoyed a most amazing lifestyle often removed from where the devastation of Earth is visible, but we are not immune from the effects of our behaviour. We are not climate scientists, but ignorance of what is happening to our home planet is not outside our understanding. Almost every day the news cycle presents us with an environmental news flash, and program after program on television, film after film, thousands of climate scientists’ research documents, and hundreds of books on the changing climate, environmental degradation, and species extinctions are telling us what is going on with the health of Earth.

In my life, I am well acquainted with people who say they do not believe in human-induced climate change as though it is a matter of faith. Blind faith that it is all cyclical is not an option. The climate emergency is not something that you can choose to believe or not. It is a matter of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and now photography. We may not get all the science relating to the changing climate, but the camera does not lie. Documentary after documentary has presented real-life footage, images, photos, and films which clearly show what is happening to our home planet as it is transpiring. The triple FFF comes to mind – floods, fire, and famine – because of drought proving to be catastrophic for some countries and millions of people, but these tell-tale signs are just the beginning of our experience and education about the health of Earth. Environmental literacy is the most important literacy of all; we need to be able to read the signs of the Earth. So how Earth literate are we? We are earthlings; we live on this planet. What do we really know about how it functions as a planet? What are its planetary needs to be healthy? We know that Planet Earth is alive, it lives, and it has needs to stay healthy to support animate life.

The problem for climate scientists is that they struggle to communicate their research and predictions of possible outcomes regarding the changing climate to the general public. In general, we do not read scientific journals that inform us about their research. Climate scientists have tried to educate the public as best they can, even inviting religious leaders as they are the people who have access to a captive audience and can inform their attendees. All religions have within their belief and value systems the need to care for the Earth. However, religious leaders and preachers have let them down, so they have no place to turn to get their vital messages out. We are playing roulette with the future of biodiversity of life on Earth, and that includes us. If only we could just get our heads around the fact that we are just ‘big bugs’ on the Earth, members of the animal kingdom and integral members of the biosphere who are equally at risk from global heating of the planet!

As each scientist reveals something from their research, they may get a thirty-second window on the television, for example, but there is no continuity of the narrative that conditions for life on Earth are changing, and we need to be extremely attentive to those changes. We have hundreds of beautiful policy documents on climate change action and environmental degradation restoration, but there is not the degree of follow-up with real action that is so desperately needed. Money given in environmental grants seems to just disappear into the ether, and not much has been accomplished that has, in any way, averted our environmental emergency. The lack of political action in Australia and around the world has set us back ten years in mitigating the worst consequences of global warming.

To add insult to injury, many climate scientists have been silenced, gagged in the interests of logging, mining, and even water security for our people. The idea that we are on target to reach zero emissions in the second half of the century is a real worry as this will be too late. It is quite simply a matter of mathematics. If we pollute the air, heat the ocean, and destroy biodiversity at the same rate or greater over the next thirty years as we have over the last thirty years, then there will be no second half of the century to get it right. We will have given a climate runaway train a bright green light, and Mother Nature will be its captain. What does make for hard hearing for me (and I am sure for climate scientists as well) is that all through the COVID-19 pandemic, the constant refrain from governments was that they were listening to medical scientists and acting on their expert advice. Medical experts and governments came together to defend their people from a deadly virus. It was full steam ahead to flatten the curve of COVID-19. Why do we not listen to climate scientists and act on their expert advice on how to flatten the greenhouse curve? Increased global heating will be far worse than a virus pandemic, if that is possible.

CHAPTER ONE

Where Are We At in Our

Understanding of Climate Change?

We hear a great deal about global warming and climate change, but understanding the accumulation of complexities associated with what they mean for us as individuals and the whole world community is a huge undertaking. However, what is needed is a critical mass of informed people to join together to bring pressure to bear on governments so that they will legislate for a carbon-free environment now if not sooner. All the inane dialogue about having until 2050 to get to zero emissions is insensitive to climate science. We know what thirty more years of pumping carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will have on ecosystems and, more importantly, biodiversity because photographs show us the damage done by one degree of global heating.

Humans have never lived in a world like the one we are creating for ourselves, and common scientific understanding is that we may have already set ourselves up for an increase of warming of three degrees Celsius, which will be cataclysmic. Inaction now on global warming is going to have long-term devastating effects on all life, so it is no wonder climate scientists around the world are doing their best to inform us about the changing climate. Added to their research knowledge is the problem of not wanting to create eco-anxiety, which can seriously upset the mental health of people. Eco-anxiety for many people is a real possibility as people are confronted with not only an environmental emergency but also the potential for environmental catastrophe, which will impact on everyone. Climate scientists know that many of the human species in developed countries have had it so good that they will not be prepared to cope with the loss of lifestyle they are accustomed to; nor do they want to think about the impact of global warming on those they love. We have numerous examples of how people are affected, from experiencing never-ending drought to unprecedented bushfires that have scorched the Earth, their homes, and their livelihoods as well as extraordinary, devastating floods. To get a real picture of what climate scientists are experiencing, don’t just listen to their words, their intelligent but nervous words; listen to their hearts. Don’t just listen to their hearts; watch their body language as they speak the words we do not want to hear. Are we listening? Can we hear what they are saying? Can we find it in our hearts to be in empathy with them?

There are many environmental scientists who are weeping at the loss of their favourite nature interests, such as a local glacier guide who is watching glaciers disappearing before his eyes or a climate scientist who has spent his life researching and recording the loss of permafrost in Siberia. As the permafrost melts, he weeps not only for the loss of permafrost but also for the future of the world. Then there are marine scientists who have spent years documenting the submersion of islands through rising ocean levels, especially islands in the Pacific Ocean, or those recording the loss of coral reefs through bleaching. In listening to them, I have felt their sadness, loss, despair, hopelessness, anguish, fear, and pain. However, we cannot and must not let our own eco-anxiety be the reason for inaction. On the contrary, we have a very important job to do in turning around the mess that we have got ourselves into through ignorance, really. This is truly the great work that we as members of the human species are called to, and we must respond; our lives and everyone we love depend on it. It never crossed our minds that the human species could influence the ocean or the atmosphere, for example, but now we have to join with Mother Nature as she guides us to renew the Earth. COVID-19 has shown us how willing Mother Nature is to restore the balance and harmony of Planet Earth. While human ‘big bugs’ have been in lockdown, nature came out to play.

As members of the animal kingdom, we are very territorial – that is, we seem to be only interested in what is going on in our backyard and where our loved ones live. However, we are bushies, suburbians, townies, stateies, and countryites. What is required is that we understand first and foremost that we are earthlings. We are people who live within the total community of life on Planet Earth, which includes the rivers and seahorses. Whatever happens to the ice in the Arctic Circle will eventually affect us. Global warming is melting the ice. We are two-thirds water; we will not respond well if we get to three degrees Celsius of global heating. Heatwaves are responsible for more deaths than wildfires or cyclonic storms causing floods. The old, young, and vulnerable are most at risk because of the need to continually hydrate and stay cool. Whatever happens to the natural world will happen to us because we are not separate from the rest of the natural world. COVID-19 is a good example of our closeness to nature as a virus in animals can infect humans. We belong to the animal kingdom – not such a major jump for a zoonotic virus.

We are integrally connected and dependent on the conditions that allowed life to come into existence. Everything on Earth is interlinked; nothing and no one is separate from planetary life. The air we breathe here in downtown Melbourne, Australia, is the same air that prehistoric creatures breathed, and people who live on the icecaps will breathe after crocodiles and emus have exhaled it. Air is constantly recycled through nature’s awesome recycling ecosystems; even the air over the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters is part of the air we breathe, wherever we are on the planet. We are human earthlings along with the totality of creatures that depend on and share the same gifts of Earth. It is so important that we understand that we don’t exist just within our own physical space. We live as integral creatures within Earth’s biosphere. Whatever happens to the other-than-human natural world will happen to us because we are all interconnected through air and water. Our lives are completely intertwined with the rest of creation, which includes trees and ants.

There are some folks who are all for dismissing the now clear scientific evidence that something serious is going down with our home, Earth. Most ecosystems that support our lives are in imminent peril because of our activity, but that is, for some, just a myth. Some thoughtless folks, especially some of our present governments, convince themselves that because they are not feeling the stress of global warming and the changing climate personally, it isn’t happening. Some even promulgate, from their own personal authority status, that it is all fake news, even the greatest conspiracy perpetrated on humans and koalas. However, as I write this humble explanation of what is happening with the biomes, the ecosystems, and the biodiversity that support our life, the world has again experienced the hottest year on record; heatwaves have taken their toll on biodiversity, wildfires are raging, ocean levels are rising, and the culprit is global warming. We can only nervously wait to see what next summer will bring regarding bushfires given that meteorologists have had to add a new colour to their weather charts and maps to illustrate the increase in temperature.

For my part, I am not a climate scientist. I am an ordinary person who has been following the climate science for forty years. I am now seventy-three, but thirty years ago, I thought that I would not live long enough to see the scientific predictions of what was to become of us come to fruition. However, I am still here, and yes, I am witness to those many predictions about the impact of global warming because of our activities, coming to pass in real time. As I stated earlier, I used to sit on my deck at home and think, I cannot feel climate change, and I cannot see the changing climate. Life was just perfect for me; so could the predictions really be true? Could it really get to be so bad for my children, who would have to survive global warming generating a changing climate and the degradation of ecosystems that are vital for life? I no longer think of my children and their possible demise because they have joined me as adults and are engaged in ‘business-as-usual’. I now think of my beautiful, innocent grandchildren, who will bear the brunt of the impending environmental disasters through no fault of their own. When some not-so-well-informed people say to me that our grandchildren will be all right, that they will adjust to their new way of life, I do not feel that confidence because their lives will be completely out of their control. Nature will be in control then. My grandchildren are part of Earth’s biodiversity, which has evolved to live in a stable biosphere and climate, and only those creatures that can adapt will survive.

In spite of dozens of international conferences, summits, and commitments to bring carbon emissions down, thousands of proactive environmental organisations pleading for action, heads of countries and states declaring that we are in an environmental emergency, and promises to cut toxic global warming pollutants in the atmosphere, nothing of consequence has happened on any scale that is effective. Earth is still warming and will continue to warm. Today life is ‘business as usual’ for most of us, even though evidence of environmental degradation because of a fast-changing world is clear for all to see – that is, for those who want to see. It seems that no matter how vocal Mother Earth is in announcing that she has had enough of our behaviour and putting on grand performances to prove her point, we still have not registered that life as we have known it is in serious trouble, and time is of the essence to respond to her very clear messages.

CHAPTER TWO

Three Flashpoints for Alarm

As a teacher of environmental studies, I, like the climate scientists, have downplayed the seriousness of our plight. In the past, no matter what climate scientists concluded from their research, they nearly always said, ‘But we still have time’ to turn our downward spiral around – not so today. Some are clearly saying that ‘time is almost up’. Their only uncertainty is what is called ‘tipping points’ and the ‘domino effect’. Chain reactions and feedback loops are clearly understood – that is, if this happens, then that will inevitably follow. Ecosystems of Earth are interlinked, so the big unknown is which link will give in first.

Climate scientists in their hundreds, if not thousands, agree that we have a meagre ten years at most to slow the worst of what is to come, so stay tuned. For myself, I have got off my safe, blissful deck and taken a good look at what is happening to our home planet. I have joined the dots, so I needed to put pen to paper as my commitment plan to do something more than ‘business as usual’. This was my call to arms, so to speak. Climate scientists have put the whole world on notice that our current pathway to pursuing unlimited economic progress, unlimited economic growth at any cost to the health of Earth, is not sustainable, and therefore, it is not going to have a happy ending. Whatever we do to the other-than-human world, we do to ourselves.

We are called to undergo an ecological conversion. We have to understand at the deepest level that we are interrelated to all life, that we are interconnected with all life, and that we are totally interdependent on all life. Human life absolutely depends on the health of all the ecosystems and biodiversity that made life possible and continually supports life; life on Earth has been sustained because the balance and harmony of ecosystems has made it possible. It