...i heard that the earth is still recovering from the ice age and that the earth is just naturally warming up. also, i took a bio class and talked about evolution. so i don't understand what the big deal is..if the earth gets warmer animals will adapt and new forms will emerge.What the hell has happened to secondary education in this country? Wait -- I know the answer to that question...
Monday, December 03, 2007
In which I share from my class discussion board.
Sometimes the little darlings go off on strange tangents:
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I would reply "True, my friend, it is possible. However, humans will likely not be those organisms."
Sigh. College students.
Our governor elect believes in Intelligent Design so who knows what will happen next. A great number of my students believe in the Rapture but not in evolution ... although they think the disappearance of large parts of New Orleans is a happy result of natural selection.
Psycgirl pegged it: my astonishment was more at the student's lack of understanding of the time course of evolution. Climate change occurs over decades, whereas evolution occurs over eons. If global warming proceeds unchecked as the fear-mongers predict, it will be a mass extinction event -- too rapid for adaptation.
Happily, I don't think the student is questioning the fact of evolution.
Does it make me a bad person that I sort of agree with your student? If people go extinct, the planet will keep spinning around the sun (at least until the sun goes out). Something else will evolve to take our place.
Perhaps something will evolve to take our place, but I kind of *like* my place and would rather not die in an unpleasant way to give it up to something else...
Also, I would rather not have everyone I know, all my friends, family, *everyone* die.
Is that selfish of me?
I figure that we're probably OK for the next 60 years or so. Beyond that, I have no investment in this planet.
If global warming proceeds unchecked as the climatologists predict, it will be a mass extinction event. Do you really mean to suggest that climate scientists are fear mongers?
R.H., no plans for grandchildren (or long-lived children)? ;^)
My guess is that things will get bad faster than 60 years. But, I suppose it does depend on your definition of "bad", where you live (elevation; for example, not in much of Florida), and how much money you have (gated community to keep out the refugees).
I've always wondered which of my friends and family would turn to looting and cannibalism.
The weather and the climate is a tricky thing to predict, but I'm convinced that whatever happens on the global warming front is likely to be expensive and inconvenient. (Seems like a pretty safe bet).
Unfortunately, I know exactly which of my relatives would turn to cannabalism and looting.
"Also, I would rather not have everyone I know, all my friends, family, *everyone* die.
Is that selfish of me?"
Not at all. Isn't that the basic biological drive - stay alive and reproduce? I think wanting to stay alive is pretty goddamned normal.
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