The surface sea temperature off Byron this week topped 27 degrees celsius, the hottest it’s ever been.
That’s warm enough to spawn a cyclone and bring sea-wasps and crocodiles into our creeks.
Over the coming few centuries, the sea level seems set to rise at least nine meters, pushing Byron’s coastline back to the Koonyum Range and turning Main Arm Valley into a saltwater estuary.
I just saw a sobering interview with Professor Guy McPherson from the University of Arizona. He predicted todays unfolding ecocide back in 2002. Since then science suggests global temperature will gradually rise three to four degrees, and by drastically cutting carbon emissions, give us a chance to do something about it.
But in his latest book, Professor McPherson dramatically revised his temperature up – and his time-frame down.
There is an exponential effect known as ‘feedback loops’, as thawing permafrost and warming seas release ever more methane.
Instead of taking centuries, Professor McPherson now predicts a five to six degree temperature rise in the next ten to twenty years!
Humans have never lived in a world more than 3 degrees hotter than it is now. He’s talking about Human extinction and preparing for mass grieving. Kissing ourselves and our kids goodbye. It makes the West Byron Development and CSG fracking seem a bit bizarreto say the least.
Even if the professor is only half right, it makes all our wars and petty differences seem pretty indulgent.
Having a religion that preaches ‘Man is made in God’s image’ and endorses attitudes which have licensed the plunder of our precious planet, shows the power religious dogma has to shape destiny rather than merely predict it. Maybe Christians will get their ‘Vale of Tears’ after all?
Maybe Gen Z will be ‘the end of days’?
Professor Mc Pherson writes that we named ourselves ‘Homo-Sapien’, the ‘Wise Ape’. He suggests we should have called ourselves instead the ‘Clever Ape’ – but not the wise.
Michael Balson, Upper Wlsons Creek
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
