A few years ago I had this idea of B.I.G. trips. Where B.I.G. stood for "Before Its Gone". It started with my dawning awareness of the steep decline of healthy coral reefs around the world. I have taught Marine Science at a high school for the last 13 years and in the process I have had the opportunity to rub shoulders with big-name marine scientists, attend workshops at world class marine science institutions and participate in a few scientific expeditions to remote corners of the globe. While so engaged I have heard increasing reports of ocean collapse scenarios. For the past several years I also taught Advanced Placement Environmental Science and have done extensive reading on the subject to keep up with current ideas in the field.
The news is not good. That is when I decided to go to the "Coral Triangle" a few years ago to, sad to say it, see it before it was gone. Several trips I had taken to snorkle places around the world (East Africa, Thailand (before the tsunami), Cuba, the Mediterranean, Indonesia, Vietnam and New Zealand), the reefs were already in bad shape. I was pleasantly surprised that Raja Ampat, in Indonesia, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands all have healthy vibrant reefs. It made me relax a little.
But the bad news kept coming. I heard of Penguin colonies disappearing in Antarctica and Polar Bears drowning in the Arctic. So here I am preparing for another B.I.G trip to Antarctica. I decided I had to go now.
Recently, a book by Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything was published and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I am someone who thinks of himself as an environmentalist. I am someone who keeps up with the news. I am a rational science-minded person, but what she has to say was like a slap in the face to my complacency. I strongly urge anyone who reads this blog to read her book... now. She brings together all the disparate parts of the puzzle: the science, the politics, the economic drivers and makes it abundantly clear the time for action is running out before the climate problem becomes something our actions will no longer be able to affect. I was disturbed before, now I'm scared.
The fossil fuel industry is not running out of supplies, they are, in fact ramping up production, with thirty year investment horizons. The problem is that the fuels they are going after are the dirtiest on the planet. The worst of the worst in terms of the effect they will have on the climate: fracked natural gas, tar sands, shale oil and lignite coal.
If we buy into their plans, if we allow it, if we stand by mute and complicit, we will doom and destroy the planet and creatures we love. In addition, we will further enrich the richest and insure the influence they have over goverrnments around the world. When the calamities get worse (they are already obviously bad) the infrastructure that has been left to collapse in the name of cutting taxes will no longer be able to recover from multiple mega storms, rising seas, droughts and floods. The average person (99% of the population) will be left to fend for themselves. Those who fed at the trough, enriching themselves while we stood by will be fine. I plan to fight B.I.G.
