So I dunno . . . here are some links -
NASA Study: Climate Sensitivity Is High So ‘Long-Term Warming Likely To Be Significant
ShhUsh Limpballs - The Climate is Always Changing
What do you think? I mean, wasn't there talk of a Going to the Moon approach to reducing carbon emissions?
The consequences laid out in the NASA article aren't specified in the particular, what is spelled out is the premise that the situation is far worse than has been predicted. Civilization as we know it hangs in the balance -
Any suggestions? I mean, how do we take the nation's energy policy out of the hands of the companies like Enron and the men who run them, like Ken Lay? In other words, how do we take our energy policy out of the hands of liars, thieves - and other assorted REPELICANS?
If civilization is going to have any hope whatsoever of reducing its carbon footprint and thus saving itself, then that is what we must do, isn't it? Take back our energy policy?
With gutter comedians getting rich by telling lies the way Rush is, how do we do that?
Not really an apt analogy, IMO. Going to the Moon was a common goal that people could cheer for, while cheering against the USSR. There was a sports glory aspect to it. Nobody was harmed, and everyone was rewarded. Fixing GW on the other hand requires hurting a lot of people. Granted, many of these people deserve to be hurt pretty badly, but they have a lot of cash on hand and will do what they can to maintain status quo. The Moon shot was a singular focus with a clearly defined goal and everyone on board. There's no way to reduce GW to such a simplistic focus, I'm afraid. Only controlling energy and food prices can really make a difference in effecting our collective behavior. I've always had the thought that gasoline should be price progressive. That is, if you drive a truck, you pay $6/gallon, whereas, if you drive an electric/gas hybrid, maybe you only pay $3. The other side, that nobody ever wants to acknowledge, is that your cheeseburger is worse for GW than your pickup truck. Meat should cost the end consumer what it costs the rest of us ecologically. $1/lb for chicken is unconscionable, and it's ruining the world....wasn't there talk of a Going to the Moon approach to reducing carbon emissions?
Ah, the plight of externality can explain so, so much. thenewgreen posted a piece from the economist earlier to day about rent seeking, and crony capitalism. I found it strange that they didn't try to quantify massive public subsidy also. It's a little bit implicitly included in some of the analyses, but not nearly to the extent it should be. That dollar McDouble doesn't look so cheap when you and I get to pay for the Medicare patient's clot busting stroke intervention.
So... based on your links and based on your viewpoint, what I'm going to recommend is some reading up on global warming. For one thing, we're past the tipping point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_point_(climatology) Consensus put it at 350ppm CO2 and we hit 386 in 2012. Things are going to change. They are already. For another thing, global warming is most going to impact the indigent, the unprepared, the fragile equatorial regions. This is the main reason nobody is doing anything: life will get harder and less comfy for the 1st world, but shall become even more nasty, brutish and short for everyone else. It's a good time to not live in the Cote d'Ivoire. BIll McKibben's your man. Read this book. Then read this one. Paul Gilding subtitles his book "how climate change will change everything for the better" but he also mentions a massive die-off of humanity in Chapter 2. From there, you'll have a better idea what we're looking at. Then, if you want to do something, go here:
wait, what did you say? So in other words, I really shouldn't do anything at all, right now, or even ever without first . . . reading something . . . . something like . . . THIS: > This is not cool > Along with the Arctic ice, the rich world's smugness will melt", by George Monbiot > The Crossroads clearly before us: Global Warming's Terrifying New Math; by Bill McKibben > Here’s a story that should be the lead across the nation:
> Climate Change Is Happening Faster Than You Think > Already, traffic is increasing. In 2010, for example, the administrators of the Northern Sea Route granted permission for four vessels to transit the icy seaway. Last year, that total had risen to 46. Earlier this month, the figure stood at 270. > 5 Terrifying Statements in the Leaked Climate Report > Last Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were This High: 15 Million Years Ago, Scientists Report > What Factors Determine Earth's Climate? > Earth more sensitive to CO2 than previously thought .
The NASA report I linked to earlier indicates that we will likely hit a 5C increase in temp much sooner than anyone expected . . . . wait, what did you say? . . . so . . . does that make you part of The Climate Change Denial Industry . . . Then, if you want to do something
BETWEEN TWO AND THREE DEGREES OF WARMING . . . preventing mass starvation will be as easy as halting the cycles of the moon. First millions,
then billions, of people will face an increasingly tough battle to survive. To find anything comparable we have to go back to the Pliocene – last epoch of the Tertiary
period, 3m years ago. There were no continental glaciers in the northern hemisphere (trees grew
in the Arctic), and sea levels were 25 metres higher than today’s.
We're currently about one fifth of the way to this 3C benchmark . . . The end of the world is nigh. A three-degree increase in global temperature – possible as early
as 2050 – would throw the carbon cycle into reverse. Instead of absorbing carbon dioxide, vegetation and
soils start to release it. So much carbon pours into the atmosphere that it pumps up atmospheric concentrations
by 250 parts per million by 2100, boosting global warming by another 1.5C. In other words, the Hadley
team had discovered that carbon-cycle feedbacks could tip the planet into runaway global warming by the
middle of this century – much earlier than anyone had expected. BETWEEN FOUR AND FIVE DEGREES OF WARMING
. We are looking now at an entirely different planet. Ice sheets have vanished from both poles;
rainforests have burnt up and turned to desert; the dry and lifeless Alps resemble the High Atlas;
rising seas are scouring deep into continental interiors. One temptation may be to shift populations
from dry areas to the newly thawed regions of the far north, in Canada and Siberia. Even here, though,
summers may be too hot for crops to be grown away from the coasts; and there is no guarantee that
northern governments will admit southern refugees.Then, if you want to do something
?
...that stuff. that stuff up there. That stuff that basically says "global warming can no longer be stopped, it can only be slowed and even that is a lot less useful than dealing with the consequences." Those two books I linked? I've read them. So throwing a whole bunch of OccupyWallSt links at me? Yeah, preaching to the choir, homie. But what I don't understand is what you're so bent about. All i said was that you oughtta read up to get some perspective and that there are organizations that are doing what they can against climate change. I'm not sure how getting all fleck-lipped about it is somehow better than, you know, wrapping your head around it and assessing it with a clear eye, but whatever. mk - something in your emailer choked on the context above. Here's all I got via email: Hi kleinbl00. ZenDog just replied to your post: So... based on your links and based on your viewpoint, what I'm going to recommend is some reading up on global warming. For one thing, we're past the tipping point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wi... ZenDog wrote: wait, what did you say?| Then, if you want to do somethingSo in other words, I really shouldn't do anything at all, right now, or even ever without first . . . reading something . . . .something like . . . THIS: > This is not cool> Along with the Arctic ice, the rich world's smugness will melt", by George Monbiot> The Crossroads clearly before us: Global Warming's Terrifying New Math; by Bill McKibben> Here’s a story that should be the lead across the nation:
> Climate Change Is Happening Faster Than You Think > Already, traffic is increasing. In 2010, for example, the administrators of the Northern Sea Route granted permission for four vessels to transit the icy seaway. Last year, that total had risen to 46. Earlier this month, the figure stood at 270.> 5 Terrifying Statements in the Leaked Climate ReportLast Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were This High: 15 Million Years Ago, Scientists Report What Factors Determine Earth's Climate?+ Earth more sensitive to CO2 than previously thoughtwait, what did you say?
you sounded like you were advocating doing nothing. All the information I've read seems to indicate that doing nothing is really not a solution. And whatever various organizations may be doing now the fact remains - Congressional Denial of Global Warming is INSANE Given that INSANITY and the facts themselves, it makes little sense to find someone posing as an intellectual advocating do nothing - and therefore IF I am preaching and IF you are indeed the choir then surely one of us is in the entirely wrong building . . . The whole purpose and intent of this post was to encourage some new thinking among a bunch of writers an' shit, around the subject of how this denialism perpetuates itself, who profits, and what possible solutions might present, short of, you know, . . . cutting off rush limpballs head You aren't interested in rocking the boat? Why is that? Are you scared? what will you look like a decade from now? . and as for that stuff up there, I've read all of it. Some of it I even found all by my self . . . can you imagine? Well, with a little Google of course . . .