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 ...
Hasn't this guy been fired for incompetence yet?
What a quandary.
What is more profound, the absurdity and a$$inine conveyance that the Earth to die by our own hands or the desperation being shown to keep this dead horse of an issue alive?
That volcano in Chile just wiped out any effect we could have on C02.
If we cut down the trees and burn them, more C02.
If we let the trees live, more C02.
Cut down all the trees, and ship them to the Sun.
(ohcrap. That will just make the sun burn hotter)
OK. Ship them to...... Jupiter, or Venus. Heck, anywhere we don’t plan to move to.
These "experts" need to realize that when you are up to your nose in ****, you need to keep your mouth shut. The more they talk, the less people are listening....
The entire human population can fit within the boundaries of Jacksonville, Florida.
I guess being named "a scholar" isn't what it used to be. McKibben is a fiction writer with no scientific credentials whatsoever. He wrote a sci-fi story years ago about environmental collapse, rather entertaining at that, in the "Day After Tomorrow" genre but better. But clearly, as an authority he is right up there with Cheryl Crow. He should stick to writing fiction...oops, actually he has.
WE’RE GOING TO FREEZE!
(no wait, that was the 70’s)
WE’RE GOING TO ROAST!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Wow! The validity of the author's argument was increased because they used strong language. Science has been advanced by the words they use!
If only Newton and Einstein and Pauling knew this, think how much better the world would be right now.
This “tipping point” stuff is nonsense. Anyone who has taken grade school chemistry or physics (private school anyway) knows what equilibrium is. Adding CO2 to one side of the climate equation will balance the other side, not push it over the “edge”
OMG, this moron wrote with a straight face coal-fired power plants are as dangerous as nuclear power plant meltdown
Exactly. And get ready for “Back to the freeze, Pt II”
The magic number is 350 ppm. Not 349 ppm. Not 351 ppm. It is 350 ppm.
Where do we find such men? Such intellects, such insights, such scientific prowess? Hansen is a prophet, nay!, Hansen is a GOD!
I propose we immediately promote him to GS 18.
They shriek just like real women, don’t they?
James Hansen is funded by George Soros’ Insititue for the Politicization of Science. He is a sellout with no credibility.
http://petesplace-peter.blogspot.com/2008/02/nasa-jim-hansen-and-politicization-of.html
Providing the Jacksonville Jaguars with an unbeatable level of fan support!
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