There is no denying that the human species is altering the biosphere of the planet. It is not just climate change. We are also responsible for the increasing deforestation of our planet, the reduction of biodiversity, changing the composition of the atmosphere and the emptying of our oceans of wildlife while filling them up with pollution of all descriptions.
Most thinking people know this to be true and many of them have decided that we are not going to stop so we need to develop ways to adapt to the negative impacts of the changes that we are creating. They are probably right. The world is currently dominated by us and the animals and plants that we have domesticated and that is not going to change. Indeed, it will become more acute as wilderness is reduced to areas of the planet that are specifically protected by governments, such as national parks.
So the question then becomes how quickly are we going to be able to adapt to the changes in the biosphere? So far we are keeping up. That is probably because the changes to the biosphere, while substantial, are happening at a rather slow pace. As long as it stays that way our species, in its genius, should be able to adapt. Certainly there will be local disturbances that will cost lives and destroy livelihoods but our species and our civilization will go on.
The big concern however is the fact our biosphere is a system and like all systems if the pressure on it becomes too great it collapses. All systems have a breaking point and if the biosphere reaches that breaking point the impacts will come at us fast and I highly doubt that we will be able to adapt as well as we are currently adapting. The results could be catastrophic.
Of course, that leads to the question of how far away are we from that breaking point?
Some say a couple of decades. Others say much longer but no one knows for certain.
I do not harbour any delusions that I have the answer but I do know that we are part of the biosphere that we are changing and that we are changing it without knowing ahead of time what the impacts of those changes will be. We do not know whether a certain action will just result in the extinction of yet another species or be that action that tips the balance and leads to the collapse of the biosphere.
In short we are blindly conducting an experiment with a very volatile system, hoping that we will be able to clean up any mess we make and hoping that we do not blow up the lab in the process. I do not believe that such a situation is tenable in the long-term.
