Life at 23.5 Degrees
If you're wondering why 23.5°...
Life at 23.5 Degrees.
Did you know that if the Earth wasn’t tilted at 23.5°, we wouldn’t have any seasons? Can you imagine a world without the rhythm of spring, summer, autumn and winter?
The theory is that if the world were to be ‘righted’ so it no longer tilted on its axis, about 60% of the planet would become an inhabitable, icy tundra. Plant life would die and animals and humans would be forced to migrate to the remaining 40% of habitable land around the equator. With this migration would come intense population density, which in turn would cause overcrowding and a scarcity of resources. To cope with these changes, humans would have to live in smaller settlements and this would likely lead to economic collapse and the potential return to an ancient, even prehistoric way of life.
With the loss of the seasons, all internal clocks in the natural world, which guide breeding and hibernation patterns, would also switch off. And without their biological timers some species would overpopulate whilst others would become extinct, leading to the imbalance of the remaining ecosystems.
In other words, the natural world would alter dramatically and survival on this new seasonless Earth would become extremely difficult.
But it’s not just the natural world that would suffer from the loss of the seasons. Spring, summer, autumn and winter are a part of our human psyche: we measure physical time by them, we also need them give our lives texture and colour, a natural ebb and flow that offers a reassuring rhythm to life. Imagine the psychological impact it would have to lose that rhythm. We would lose something immensely important that the seasons provide: change—regular, expected and familiar change. And change is good. Both in the material world and in the immaterial. Change brings growth and grow is necessary for life.
Just think about how seasonal human life is: the spring of childhood, the autumn of fruitful maturity; the winter of loss, the summer of love. Shakespeare couldn’t get enough of the figurative richness the seasons offer in encapsulating human experience: ‘cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet’. And they do. That’s the natural, healthy rhythm of life. Cares and Joys. Winter and Summer.
Those 23.5° are important; they are vital. They shape life and provide a tempo that carries us through the ups and downs, the storms and calms we will all inevitably face. Life is a lesson in riding those changes: learning to fall gracefully off the summer peaks and climb with courage out of the winter troughs.
So, here I am, tilted at 23.5°, like everyone else, figuring out life at this angle as I go. Hopefully, along the way, we can learn, grow and figure out some stuff together.
PJ