Our friends at yes! Magazine have again posted Michael Nagler’s latest blog in which he advances the idea that climate disruption should perhaps be the issue of the coming decade. Here‘s the link. We highly recommend a free subscription to the weekly news service of yes! .
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By: Prof. Michael Nagler
As the Founder and President of Metta Center, Michael Nagler is also Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC, Berkeley, where he co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. Michael is the author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future and The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action. His latest book is The Third Harmony: Nonviolence & the New Story of Human Nature. Visit his website: michaelnagler.org.
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Normandy and Pietermaritzburg
Nonviolence Report April 28, 2021
Nonviolence Report April 23, 2021
A bit of History Offers a Clue for Going Forward
A Call to Nonviolence.
Hello Michael,
I very much appreciate the intention of your articles, and agree completely with the views expressed on them. However, as someone who knows a bit about physics, I have to “inform” (if that’s a good word) you that in general, although global warming is a fact, and that the *consensus* is that most of it is caused by human beings (via burning fossil fuels etc), there is still a great debate among the “scientific community” as to its causes.
For instance, I got familiar a bit with the alternative theory named “Solar variation”, which suggests the possibility that it is the sun activity level, which comes in cycles, that is currently “high” and therefore induces most of the rise in global temperature.
Apart from global warming though, it’s important to recognize that there are many other good reasons for us to minimize our usage of fossil fuels, e.g: air pollution, political reasons etc.
I would like again to clarify that *if* I was absolutely sure that the current picture behind global warming is true (in fact in science you’re never sure, but the mechanism behind the process of global warming, *quantitatively*, is *very* poorly understood), I would have nothing to say here. I’m just afraid you might have gotten a bit mislead because of the picture which the media made of the subject, which as you know very well, many times distorts reality in order to create “public sensations”.
Sincerely,
Amit
Dear Amit,
I very much appreciate your corrective observation. The fact remains, however, as you say, that there are all kinds of reasons to burn (much) less fossil fuel, so if we do everything we can to reduce our contribution to the problem it will help in many ways. “Full effort is full victory,” Gandhi said.
Thanks for your comment.
Michael
The effects of Global Warming is getting much stronger these days. We should concentrate more on alternative energy to reduce carbon emissions.