Posted on 05/11/2008 10:48:45 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Civilization's last chance The planet is nearing a tipping point on climate change, and it gets much worse, fast. By Bill McKibben May 11, 2008 Even for Americans -- who are constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start -- even for us, the world looks a little terminal right now.
It's not just the economy: We've gone through swoons before. It's that gas at $4 a gallon means we're running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It's that when we try to turn corn into gas, it helps send the price of a loaf of bread shooting upward and helps ignite food riots on three continents. It's that everything is so tied together. It's that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the "limits to growth" suddenly seem ... how best to put it, right.
All of a sudden it isn't morning in America, it's dusk on planet Earth.
There's a number -- a new number -- that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
A few weeks ago, NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several coauthors. The abstract attached to it argued -- and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper -- that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Someone, please, post the chicken little picture.....sheesh.
We’re all gunna FReepin die.
You took the picture right out of my mouth. ; )
That “tipping point” they keep talking about will never be reached. To do so would rob them of the chance to scare everybody into pouring money into their schemes. Once it’s “too late” to do anything, people will, well, give up on doing anything. And they just can’t have that.
Utter bunk. The danger we face is another ice age. And fools, such as the author of this article, who will do everything in their power to prevent us from focusing on and dealing with the real problems we actually face, preferring to frighten themselves and others with pseudo-scientific fantasies.
bull sh-t, 6 billion people and other mammals exhaling CO2 and the earth can’t handle it?? bullsh-t!!!
I totally agree. These idiots are forcing billions of dollars to be spent on something they can’t even prove. Climate changes. With or without human beings. We have survived because we adapted to real problems, not phantom alarmism. We would be much better served by learning how to adapt to climate change than alter it. Flawed logic from the start with these fools.
Perhaps the earth is warming. I'm not sure we have enough accurate baseline information to make that determination but maybe it is warming. I understand that there are similar, shaky, measurements that suggest Mars is warming too. So what?
Earth has always been either warming or cooling; the possibility of long term stable temperatures seems remote if not impossible.
Is there a deadline date? You’d think the least they could do is tell us when, so we can get our houses in order.
When it came to war in Iraq, no argument for preemptive action could ever be good enough. No evidence was strong enough to believe Saddam was a threat.
When it comes to global warming, no argument against preemptive action could ever be good enough. No evidence is strong enough to thwart immediate action.
The consequences of action against Saddam in terms of money and lives will dwarf the consequences of the decision to make war on global warming
James Hansen, global warming shill extrordinaire.
“Call the men in the white coats”
That is the correct remedy.
Give these people some Jim Jones Koolaid so the rest of us can live in peace.
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