Not Too Late (talk)

[Kokuu]

Hi all

I haven't watched it yet but author and environment activist Rebecca Solnit recently gave this climate talk at Upaya Zen Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHeTIheoC8A

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[aprapti]

it's an inspiring talk, Kokuu. Thanks for sharing

aprapti

sat

[Jundo]

Sadly, I just read this. Zen folks, for all our talk of "flowing with change," actually are very much prone to stability and the opposite of chaos in temple life, with its rigid rules, balance and order. Our planet does not need rigidity, but it does require some balance and order ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Physicists predict Earth will become a chaotic world, with dire consequences

"If the Earth System gets into the region of chaotic behavior, we will lose all hope of somehow fixing the problem."

Humans aren't just making Earth warmer, they are making the climate chaotic, a stark new study suggests.

The new research, which was posted April 21 to the preprint database arXiv(opens in new tab), draws a broad and general picture of the full potential impact of human activity on the climate. And the picture isn't pretty.

While the study doesn't present a complete simulation of a climate model, it does paint a broad sketch of where we're heading if we don't curtail climate change and our unchecked use of fossil fuels, according to the study authors, scientists in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Porto in Portugal.

... In the best cases, once humanity reaches the limit of carbon output, Earth's climate stabilizes at a new, higher average temperature. This higher temperature is overall bad for humans, because it still leads to higher sea levels and more extreme weather events. But at least it's stable: The Anthropocene looks like previous climate ages, only warmer, and it will still have regular and repeatable weather patterns.

But in the worst cases, the researchers found that Earth's climate leads to chaos. True, mathematical chaos. In a chaotic system, there is no equilibrium and no repeatable patterns. A chaotic climate would have seasons that change wildly from decade to decade (or even year to year). Some years would experience sudden flashes of extreme weather, while others would be completely quiet. Even the average Earth temperature may fluctuate wildly, swinging from cooler to hotter periods in relatively short periods of time. It would become utterly impossible to determine in what direction Earth's climate is headed.

"A chaotic behavior means that it will be impossible to predict the behavior of Earth System in the future even if we know with great certainty its present state," Bertolami said. "It will mean that any capability to control and to drive the Earth System towards an equilibrium state that favors the habitability of the biosphere will be lost."

Most concerning, the researchers found that above a certain critical threshold temperature for Earth's atmosphere, a feedback cycle can kick in where a chaotic result would become unavoidable. There are some signs that we may have already passed that tipping point, but it's not too late to avert climate disaster.

https://www.livescience.com/humanity-turns-earth-chaotic-climate-system

Gassho, J

STLah

[Geika]

Sitting in hope that we all begin to change.

Gassho
Sat, lah

[Kokuu]

it's an inspiring talk, Kokuu. Thanks for sharing

I watched it now, Aprapti, and agree! Rebecca is one of my favourite authors and I guessed she might have Zen inclinations when I noticed a chapter of one of her books was entitled 'Two Arrows Meet'!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Naiko]

Thank you for sharing this teaching, Kokuu. I took note when she said despair is a strange sort of confidence that you know what happens in the future. There were many good points to take away from this.
Gassho,
Naiko
st lah

[Doshin]

Thank you for sharing this teaching, Kokuu. I took note when she said despair is a strange sort of confidence that you know what happens in the future. There were many good points to take away from this.
Gassho,
Naiko
st lah

Doshin
St

[Kokuu]

I took note when she said despair is a strange sort of confidence that you know what happens in the future. There were many good points to take away from this.

Yes, I really liked that. Deciding things are either no problem or we are doomed is much easier than resting in the uncertainty of not knowing.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-