Bunty, down here in south Alabama we're just exiting from a long, hot, drought. We've had multiple record high temps and pretty much zero rainfall (unless you were fortunate enough to be beneath a cloudburst) over the last 30-45 days. Pretty well fire bans from one end of the state to the other. Thankfully the 95-100F temperatures have given way to the upper 80Fs and is hopefully dropping a little lower after this weekend...*and* a real chance of some rain!!!!!
Nothing stays the same, things change. Has "man" caused global warming?...he most likely has contributed to it. Sending fumes and smoke into the atmosphere can't be a good thing. I read an article several years back, though, that was asserting that if the world had anywhere near the tree canopy that it had in the past that the natural filtration system could handle those pollutants. But, massive clearing of old growth forests here in the USA, in the Amazon Basin, and in most any other country/place in the world has taken away our best defense against "global warming", poor air quality, etc., etc.,. But "progress"...quest for food production (fields), the needs for lumber, and the basic greed of man has mowed most of the forest lands down. Pretty much anything "modern" has a thread (even if it is a fine one) leading back to fossil fuels. If not, then the process of manufacturing creates emissions that go "somewhere". The computer screen that we look at, the vehicle we drive to work, the synthetic *and* natural materials that we cloth ourselves with, the asphalt in the roads, the wire bringing electricity to our houses and businesses,...everything contributes to a more "dirty" environment. I'm no tree-hugger (though I like trees
), it's just logic that we're leaving footprints (and lots of them) most everywhere we go. Are the footprints causing "global warming"?...I dunno, but the footprints are there, there is no denying that part. I recently had a reality check on a trip to Uganda. Definitely a third world country...the land has been stripped of most natural resources, people walk miles to get a jerry can full of water, to get an armload of firewood for cooking, the cities have a lingering layer of smoke from garbage being burned, etc., etc.,. The education level is very low. And that is just one country in east Africa...many more like it around the globe. Indifference (more important priorities than the environment to these people), ignorance (most people there haven't ever heard of the ozone layer), need (cooking wood is scarce, but no other power to speak of to cook their meager meals with). Very little wood is used in building structures...mud brick, a few roof trusses, and mostly steel windows and doors.
I don't believe anybody intends/intended to mar our world with toxins...the indifference, ignorance, and need all add to the equation. The current environmental situation is somewhat like a "Comedy of Errors"...but, not very entertaining.
When I look to the south of where I live and see the 10's (100's) of thousand acres of clearcuts, where old stand timber once stood, and I see weak pine trees planted in rows...well, something just doesn't seem comforting about that. When I was a teenager and the wholesale clear-cutting was underway with the little pine saplings being planted a friend of mine quipped one day "You know, one day our grandchildren will believe that pine trees all grow in rows". We're pretty much at that point.
Cycle? Man caused? Climate change? Global warming?
Nothing stays the same, things change...
Edit: Misspelled "add" as "and"...