Comfort today, global warming tomorrow

Like any thoughtful human being, I worry about my life and the relatively minor singular day-to-day activities that affect one person. Is my family progressing? Will I have a job tomorrow? Can I create a safe environment for us to prosper?

But within the reality of my loved ones' lives, at what point do I look toward the future of humanity and the forces bearing down upon mankind and the only existence I've ever known?

And while none of my immediate concerns have anything to do with the most momentous issues facing human existence today, I must ask, what are we going to do when the mass of overpopulation and inadequate measures curtailing global warming overwhelm this fragile creation we all call Earth?

World leaders and politicians can balk all they want at the preponderance of scientific evidence compiled over the last two decades refuting their inane statements that it's all a hoax, but in essence, every one of us has created more damage to our planet in those last two decades than we have in the last two millennia.

To be sure, when the earth reaches a 3-degree increase in temperature, as predicted sometime around 2080, the massive ice shelves of Greenland and Antarctica will melt and every coastal city will become swamped by an angry sea looking for vengeance against the only biological entity capable of bringing it all to a crashing halt. Humans!

So by all means, continue living as if our natural resources are endless. My only hope is that my extended family will be safe and prosper in a new world created by the comfort we seek today.

Gary Lukens

Des Plaines