It will not be the end of the world. and it is not just about the polar bears on their lonely icebergs.
Those thoughts kept going through my head during our recent town hall meeting about climate change, which took place at Yale University this past January (see page 38). Popular coverage of global warming tends toward the broad and apocalyptic, or the narrow and remote. Both extremes miss the point. Our planet has survived many climate swings in the past, and it will survive this one, too. And while it is true enough that many species may struggle in a warmer world, the one whose fate we should really worry about is Homo sapiens.
When temperature and precipitation patterns shift, the organisms hit hardest are the ones with the deepest roots. Unfortunately for us, we humans have a lot of permanent infrastructure. Coastal cities cannot move inland to get ...
