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Back to index of Nerve 22 - Summer 2013
Passing the ‘Tipping Point’
By Sammy Dat
For
the first time in human history, the concentration of climate-warming
carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has passed the milestone level
of 400 parts per million (ppm). Just to put this figure in context, at
the beginning of industrialisation the concentration of CO2 was just 280ppm,
and several million years ago, the last time so much greenhouse gas was
in the air, the Arctic was ice-free and the sea level was up to 40 metres
higher. These conditions are expected to return in time, with devastating
consequences for life, unless emissions from the burning of coal, gas
and oil are rapidly curtailed.
To highlight the importance of the above, the story of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), which, although it has now become something of a cliché, is worth retelling.
When the first Westerners landed in Rapa Nui in 1722, they found a society in a primitive state engaged in almost perpetual warfare and resorting to cannibalism, because food was so scarce. As everyone knows, Easter Island is famous for its massive stone statues, which are evidence of a thriving civilisation. The islanders had used up all the natural resources of the island over time. They had cut down most of the trees to transport the statues, their land had become eroded, and fishing became impossible. The population declined drastically and those left lived in squalid reed huts or caves.
How many of these islanders later came to die through slavery, disease and colonialism is another story. But in the environmental tale of Rapa Nui we have clear indicators that the destruction of resources, which the present society is bringing about in the push for profit, will result in tragedy for the human race.
Sources:
"Global carbon dioxide in atmosphere passes
milestone level" by Damian Carrington, The Guardian, 10 May 2013.
"A New Green History of the World - The Environment and the Collapse
of Great Civilisations" by Clive Ponting, 2007.
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