Urban myth has it that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it will instantly leap out. But if you put it in a pot filled with pleasantly tepid water and gradually heat it, the frog will remain in the water until it boils to death. Allegedly, the frog is not able to detect the gradual increase in temperature until it’s too late.
Well, this is the perfect analogy for Climate Change and we are the frog – need I say more!
An interesting piece of data that just came out in regards to the Covid-19 Pandemic: After a huge surge, the number of cases and deaths is dropping quickly, not because we now are vaccinating enough people but because they finally took it seriously and started wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and avoiding high transmission environments. Of course, here in the US, it has taken more than 500,000 deaths to have the light go on.
In the case of Climate Change, this is much more subtle and I as I have noted many times in this blog, things are going to have to get really bad before everyone starts making the commitment and sacrifices necessary to bring emissions down to zero. Problem is, when we get there, whatever the PPM level of GHGs (green house gases) is, and the ongoing change(s) to the climate system are; they will stay in place for multiple generations thereafter. Ergo: once the water is boiling, it will stay boiling even if we turn off the stove.
Hence the urgency to stop increasing the heat as quickly as we can(!) And/or maybe come up with a plan to deal with a challenging future.
Have a nice day!!
SZ