What Environmental Reporting Leaves Out

[GliderGuider]

10. Of course it's not.

One of the ideas we're constantly exposed to as we hang out here on E/E is the large number of tipping points we face, the number of ways in which the planet and its residents (including us) are in deep trouble from human activities. The impacts of our activities intersect and interact. In the process they create unexpected new feedback loops, many of which are positive feedbacks, and unexpected points of potential rupture. This is all due to the complexity of human interactions with every aspect of the planet - with each other as well as with the physical planet and its biosphere.

Nobody claims that AGW is the only influence, just that it may be the most significant physical consequence we face right now. Inevitably, the effects of AGW are felt in other areas, everywhere from species extinctions to geographic changes to political and economic impacts.

It's a fucking big world, and we've fucked with every aspect of it. The consequences have indeed become unpredictable, just as chaos theory implies they will.