Climate Change Means Something…
But what is that something and what does it mean? Is it real? Is it Armageddon? Has it happened before? Is it temporary? Or is the Climate Change agenda nothing more than a stab in the dark guess at what is going on? One based on the assumption it is all our fault. Just suppose the signs are attributable to something else? Perhaps a well known and experienced phenomena: like old age. Maybe the earth and its solar system is wearing out like an old sock and being counted down and out. We can stitch it up and wear it for a while, but before long your toes will reappear through the broken threads. Age catches up with everything eventually. I am 76 years old so I should know something about the inexorable progress of decay. Suppose we and indeed the universe are staggering on old legs. In which case we are merely experiencing the effects of a well established law of science. A law which states that there is a natural tendency for any isolated system to degenerate into an increasingly disordered state. This process is associated with the Second Law of Thermodynamics and is called Entropy. Our planet and our climate are subject to this law along with everything else.
It is a law which cannot be broken. It can be slowed at the level of human activity because we can analyse a problem, repair it and if necessary rebuild. Outside that narrow window of opportunity stands the imperious 2nd Law. And it heralds the eventual deconstruction, disordering and dismantling of all things. Entropy cannot be argued with, it just is; life puts things together and entropy pulls it apart. That does not exclude our planet or any of its ordered systems, such as our environment and climate. These along with everything else are on the hit list of entropy, and this has been so since the beginning. And yet, rather than affirm and accept this inevitable truth we spend our time in denial, in protest, and in La La Land by raising false hopes, thinking that modern populations will choose to disavow everything that has happened since the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. That is not going to happen, the majority will never voluntarily give up our modern lives with their attendant comforts and perceived necessities. So what are the alternatives? Living clean and green might help, but in all probability these two options are not up to the job.What we might consider doing instead is preparing ourselves for what must come one day to a generation like ours. We will try our best obviously, but like keeping the incoming tide out of a crenellated sand castle it can only be done for a while before it is overwhelmed. Children cry, adults dry their tears and explain that in this case nothing could be done. Is out thinking aligned to that of the adult or the child? It is interesting that at this time in history we are prepared to be led by a child; Greta Thunberg and her disciples.
Is the universe new or old? We know for sure that it is not new. So if it is getting old what should we expect of a finite system? We must turn and face the grim enactment of Second Law on physics and chemistry. What do we know about this ageing process? We know that youth and early middle age normally progress without much serious illness or drastic deterioration. We also know that old age, like the sun at dusk, it is on the horizon and about to disappear from view. One day maybe forever.
Old age is just a heading descriptive of the many entropic reasons why we humans fall into decay. From dust I came, and one day in that form my mortal remains will be handed to my wife or one of our children. Prostate cancer might be the direct cause of my death, but it will not be the only one. The entire body in which I live has been decaying for decades. To blame old age is just to give a heading beneath which there are more detailed and varied reasons. Some of the causes will be my fault. Have for example drink or drugs or sexual promiscuity contributed? Has a genetic disorder hurried my demise? Is the region of the world into which I was born a factor? Was I born into the lower stratas of society where medicines and drugs were unavailable and opportunities to better myself cut off? Was I the runt of a litter who was left behind by those more able and talented? It could be any of a multitude of reasons, some of which may have been self-inflicted. But other factors may have nothing whatsoever to do with decisions taken by me.
We are blaming ourselves for the state of the planet; fair enough, we are certainly guilty for some of it, but what about other reasons which may be far outside our control? Such as the inevitability of decline leading to the death of any complex interlinked system, whether created or evolved. Look at the rusted and abandoned pick-up truck which illustrates this article. Misuse and lack of care could be the cause, but so could the build up of natural processes. It just wore out and had to be abandoned. We know this is a truth proved beyond any reasonable doubt. A man made system always requires care and attention. So does a garden. If it falls into terminal decline it is in part nothing more than nature taking its course. In the process it will strangle cultured plants, encourage weeds and destroy the view. With a garden the fault is obvious. With a planet the fault is far from obvious. Could it be nothing more than entropy doing its work? Look in the bible and you will note that in the beginning the Earth was put into the care of humankind in the person of Adam. His work, his purpose, was to procreate with his wife and take care of the paradise into which he was born: his work was to look after the Garden of Eden. So we were supposed to continue on this theme, and take care of our world. It is undeniable that we humans have both exploited what the Earth has to offer and thought little of the consequences until fairly recently. But does that account for everything climate change activists have identified as the cause of global warming and its consequences? Is it true? There are dissident voices; some well qualified, others like me just thinking it through. An old man like me may look at his body and mind and see they have greatly deteriorated. Can I get back those years, can I rejuvenate by body and mind? To a degree maybe, but beyond that death is inevitable. It was inevitable from the moment of birth. Maybe the Earth which was also once birthed is subject to exactly the same fate.
Are we responsible for the apparent rundown of complex systems? Take as an example you and I and the global population. Are we at the peak of our potential or are we falling into decay?
Here is a paraphrased view by the evolutionist and scientist John Hawks concerning the state of modern man. He explains there is a list of changes which have occurred in our skeleton and skull. Hawks, who is a University of Wisconsin anthropologist, states that it is clear the brain has been shrinking, doing so since the Stone Age. He argues that over the past 20,000 years, the average volume of the human male brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimetres to 1,350 cc. This represents a chunk the size of a tennis ball. This has occurred in China, Europe, Africa, everywhere! If this rate continues over the next 20,000 years, it will he says begin to approach the size of that found in the primitive type of human called Homo erectus, supposedly a human relative who lived half a million years ago. The male had a brain volume of only 1,100 cc. possibly owing to said shrinkage. The interviewer asks, “Are you saying we’re getting dumber?” The answer is yes! We are truly falling into a state we once called primitive. Even the great Isaac Newton modestly admitted this fact; famously stating that he only saw as far as he did by standing on the shoulders of giants who had preceded him.
An artists impression of Homo Erectus.
Is that the direction we are going: downwards into a decline which may be much worse than we imagine?
To blame human activity for all Climate Change is to be one-eyed. Open the other and have a look. Perhaps we have failed to notice many other contributory factors. Some which may account for example, for the inexorable loss of many species of flora and fauna caused by things like genetic decay, a process which has arguably been going on for millennia. We think we are at the peak of human ability. If you think that then you are out of date and ignorant of modern science. We are nowhere near as healthy, or as shown above, as strong or intelligent as we once were. The cause maybe genetic entropy. The genetic load: mutational damage which has been increasing generation upon generation, most probably since our species began. In the bible you can actually find a near perfect genetic decay curve. This can be done by examining the catastrophic fall in the ages of the patriarchs. From near one thousand years, Methuselah, to one hundred and twenty, Moses.
Here is an account based on an article on the website ‘Biology Today’.
It is said that harmful mutations can accumulate in populations; especially those like our, because natural selection, which removes many dangerous mutations is minimised in a wealthy heavily protected society like ours. One replete with health care of every type. Nevertheless it has been argued that humans may suffer from a significant rate of accumulation of genetic damage. This derives from new mutations. Why? Because some mutations are too hidden to be eliminated. The forces of selection are too weak in Western populations. The kind of natural wastage which occurs in less developed parts of the world does not happen so greatly in the privileged West. However we may already be experiencing an appreciable deterioration in fitness, and this could have dramatic consequences if populations were suddenly faced with a harsh environment. I suggest that we may be entering, or have been living for decades in a world where we ensure our generations genetic damage is passed on to future generations. And they will do the same to their progeny. It is a case of down not up. Darwin and many other thinkers of his time thought in terms of eugenics; ridding ourselves of those who carried weaknesses, whether racial, mental or physical. This was an idea acted out by the Nazi regime, one that no-one in their right mind would ever contemplate re-enacting. But we do have a problem. We can see it all around us. An industry of health workers are trying to manage the damage in both the young and the old. During the present Corona Virus it is known that the elderly, and those patients unlikely to survive the illness may go to the back of the queue so that fitter patients are given the chance of life. This, if it is happening, is a form of eugenics, favouring the healthy over the less healthy, the young over the elderly. For myself I have no problems with this even though I could get caught up in such a decision. Could all these problems and dilemmas be the result of a vast universal system racing towards its dotage? Has the Earth come close to having its day?
We were made by God along with the universe and all its laws, such as the Second Law of Thermodynamics. That Law would indicate our trajectory is not upwards but downwards. And that history has a date with the grim reaper.
Isaiah 51 v 6 affirms this belief.
“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies….”
The prophet Isiah died in the seventh century BC. He had a strong sense that the world he knew would one day wear out like an old garment. Maybe you non believers might decide this man of God knew something and spoke about it, warning us well in advance about a time such as this.
Do you want to know how it all ends. Here is the answer from the Bible, and it is amazing. How did these thoughts come into the mind of a man who was not formally educated. One who lived two millennia ago, who was not naturally all that bright and whose trade was as a fisherman. The apostle Peter wrote this in his second letter.
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”