We need to start calling it CLIMATE Change!

[sheshe2]

Al Gore started us on the idea of Global Warming. He was correct. However the asshole GOP and teabaggers yuck it up all the time over that moniker! Ha ha ha it's snowing in New England in december....HA HA HA! Global warming riiiiight!
Well it's snowing in VA. today. We just had the Mother of all storms hit us in the East Coast! Our weather patterns have been increasing dramatically! We need to address this issue.Now! Before it is to late....we are well beyond the tipping point!

[AverageJoe90]

1. TBH, this issue should have been addressed a long time ago.

But are we really past 'the' tipping point? What is 'the' tipping point anyhow? I have to be honest and say that concerns over our future are of course valid, but we do need to stray away from overly Chicken Little-ish vocabulary or we risk alienating members of the public who might otherwise be receptive to the truth as it stands.

With that said, it is indeed quite possible that we could see a few repeats over the next several decades, I suppose.

[sheshe2]

3. I don't believe this is Chicken Little-ish vocabulary!

Other wise receptive public? No GOPer or Teabagger or Corporation wants to do anything about it!Corps want to pollute the other two want to enable them to line their pockets with $$$$$$!Add the Koch Brothers! Biggest polluters around. They are rich asshole's that want RMoney and the Repubs to line their pockets by deregulation!
Polar Ice Caps are melting at an alarming rate....weather patterns are becoming alarmingly erratic and the consequences devastating! As the other poster said our food supply is in danger!Outrageous fires burning out of control!
When is enough enough. The time is past polite talk!
Let's move Forward on this....put the money aside. Let's make a change by moving ahead.

[AverageJoe90]

5. I agree, but this isn't polite talk, though.

Yes, we do need to be blunt. I agree with you 100%. But we have to do it right or it won't work all that well for us. In fact, some approaches have actually backfired. If you may remember a certain Arctic Methane Emergency Group article written by Malcolm P.R. Light this summer, this was critiqued by Michael Brown of The Ecologist:

http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/other_comments/1487008/a_student_writes_global_extinction_within_one_lifetime.html

Here is a particularly important point that was made:

"However after such recent events as the ‘Climategate’ incident, the last thing climate science needs is to be treated with hostility over data that could be considered misleading.

AMEG needs to acknowledge that making such extreme claims of global extinction on such little evidence is likely damaging to its own credibility. It is easy to imagine these claims of mass extinction being quoted on every climate denier’s blog as evidence for scientists’ lies and - frustratingly - adding more bewilderment to the already confused public opinion on climate change."

This is just one example of one particular topic, but this can be applied to a whole range of claims.

I should also point out that it is indeed highly imperative we make the malevolence of the deniers and those who back them known, and eliminate their influence ASAP. But our job will be much harder if we keep falling back on stuff that we can't necessarily back up or Chicken Little scenarios such as

However, if we DO sell the message the right way, it'll become all that much harder for the Koch Bros. and their friends to sell their ill-conceived(that's putting it mildly!) wares and agitprop. There are those like Peter Sinclair and the good people over at Skeptical Science who have done a marvelous job informing the public, and I think there are some that could learn from them.

I can understand if perhaps it seems like I'm nitpicking a little too much and I do apologize for that. But I honestly feel the stakes are simply too high to make too many mistakes.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Many climate subsystems. Many tipping points. We have passed some....

like the Arctic-albedo-ice-volume tipping point. The big worry is that the dominoes will cascade.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Drought = increasing food prices = we should all really get on growing our own food.

Personal and community gardens growing the most nutritious foods/superfoods. Note that farming animals for meat is already unsustainable so protein alternatives are a must, such as qiunoa etc.

[AverageJoe90]

4. What about hemp, btw? =) n/t