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Tuesday, January 21, 2025 at 10:32 PM

The Earth will be fine

FROM THE EDITOR

Hollywood lately has pushed out a spate of shows in which nature rises to attack the human “virus” infecting the planet.

They say entertainment reflects the times and society’s worries. If this is true, people remain more concerned than ever about climate change and the environment.

Everywhere you go, you hear, “We’ve got to save the planet.”

Folks, the planet is fine. And it’s going to be fine. It’s been fine for 4.5 billion years and — short of an asteroid strike, a supernova or a wandering black hole — this big ball of rock and water floating in space will be OK another few billion years.

What’s at risk is habitat for living organisms — human and animal. If we’re going to be accurate, that is what we need to talk about, not throw around erroneous and misleading phrases such as, “We have to protect Mother Earth.”

Here is another truth, this one about climate change. When I was in college, journalism students were required to take a hard-science course. I flirted with geology before choosing astronomy. What I learned during my short tenure with rocks and minerals is that, long before humans existed, climate change occurred on the planet.

Yes, climate change happens whether we’re here or not. It’s a natural process. Living creatures either adapt or die, the professor said. They don’t change nature; they change with nature.

There is nothing wrong with this third satellite orbiting the star Sol at a distance of 93 million miles. However, there is a lot wrong with how we humans treat it.

So, as an editor, I believe in sticking to the facts. Climate change has been around for eons and will be around for many more.

At one time Antarctica and the Sahara had jungles. Someday the green will return. We’ve always had droughts, floods, ice ages, tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires. Nothing new there.

As to animal extinctions, those, too, took place long before man existed and will continue long after we’re gone. That’s how nature works.

Sure, pollution is bad. We should be doing everything we can to protect our air and water, especially because we need both to survive. But all this hysteria about “we’ve gotta save the planet” needs to be dialed down a bit.

Our young people are already nervous enough after being cooped up during COVID. Let’s not add to their anxiety with panicked rhetoric and falsehoods about a dying planet.

Instead, let’s all be adults and practice a sober and responsible approach to maintaining safe and healthy habitats.

In the words of the satirist George Carlin: “We think some aluminum cans and some plastic bags are going to make a difference? Planet isn’t going anywhere. We are.”

No matter what, Earth will be just fine. It’s us I worry about.

Thomas Edwards is the executive editor of Granite Media Partners Inc., owners of the Taylor Press. Reach him at thomas.edwards@granitemediapartners. com.


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