Earth’s Operational Plan

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. ~ John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911.

On Christmas Eve in 2025, Iceland recorded a temperature of 19.8 degrees Celsius. The usual temperature average in Iceland on Christmas Eve is ~0 – 4 degrees Centigrade. Of Earth’s two poles, the Arctic Pole is warming faster.

Gradually, over the last 200 years, humans have sent carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at greater and greater rates until causing verifiable climate change. About 75 years ago, climate scientists warned the public of the relationship of carbon dioxide concentration and atmospheric temperature. [Technically, Alexander von Humboldt first described human induced climate change in 1800.]

Jim Hanson in the U.S.A. is the climate scientist who has been sounding the alarm for decades and enduring a concomitant response from the fossil fuel industry of being an idiot or insane (even when the industry was later revealed to have discovered that connection over half a century ago and chose to cover it up and even deny it when challenged, all for profit.).

Hansen first wrote about hidden tipping points in Earth’s complex biological and physical systems: thresholds that exist which once breached throw the system into permanent changes after which a new equilibrium is reached. As mosquitos have reached Iceland for the first time in its geological history, my guess is that the region’s ecosystems have blown by several tipping points. Iceland may be on its way to becoming an entirely other bioregion.

What does it matter? Referring back to what John Muir observed that everything in the world is hitched to everything else, humans cannot predict the outcomes and not just for humans. This amazing planet and the biomes we have all learned about and experienced, have operating systems as yet fully understood by humans. The more we play around as we seek greater riches, the more we play a dangerous game. It’s akin to Russian Roulette with our loved ones and future generations in the cross hairs.

Thanks to the persistence of scientists and environmentalists and other society leaders, we are letting fossil fuel production decrease and developing clean energy sources worldwide. This is a good direction that puts humanity on solid ground, at least for atmospheric forcing of a hot planet.

The precautionary principle

In the 1970s the German scientific community developed the principle of Vorsorge or, foresight. They developed the concept and practice while addressing the environmental impacts of deforestation.

An important and influential statement of the PP is the principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in 1992. It states “where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” Scientific Direct

I am including this principle for readers as we begin to address climate change around the world, especially in your home region. We should proceed, but with caution, to try various solutions guided by science and technology first. Economics will follow as we secure the very source of our wealth: the ground under our feet, the sky over our heads, the water we drink, etc.

People across the planet are experiencing climate change through storms, floods, heat waves and loss of biodiversity. So this is no longer a trumped up hoax. We experience in myriad ways. But what we may not realize is that it is changing the planet’s operating systems and we don’t know where that is going to end up. Will it continue to support life as we know it? Don’t know.

Every person must be involved in making sure the way we live is harmonious with what we DO KNOW about how the Earth systems operate:

1. Earth systems operate on an inexhaustible source of clean energy (the sun);
2. Earth manages ecosystem relationships so it does not overharvest a population;
3. Earth recycles matter to reuse;
4. Earth maintains genetic diversity.

To be an educated citizen of this planet, a child to an adult needs to know how the land under her feet, the sky over her head, and the living kin around her operate to stay healthy, reproduce, and live to the fullest. An educated citizen must understand her role in maintaining that system for the benefit of All.

References

Iceland Temperature at Christmas: Guardian, Dec. 20, 2025

von Humboldt the first environmentalist: nature ecology & evolution

°F = °C * 9/5 + 32

For interest and for an excellent recent book about Alexander von Humboldt and just a generally great read, I recommend Andrea Wulf’s recent biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature.