"Climate change is here — and worse than we thought" - James Hansen, WP blog post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/climate-change-is-here--and-worse-than-we-thought/2012/08/03/6ae604c2-dd90-11e1-8e43-4a3c4375504a_story.html"When I testified before the Senate in the hot summer of 1988 , I warned of the kind of future that climate change would bring to us and our planet. I painted a grim picture of the consequences of steadily increasing temperatures, driven by mankind’s use of fossil fuels.
But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic.
My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather.
In a new analysis of the past six decades of global temperatures, which will be published Monday, my colleagues and I have revealed a stunning increase in the frequency of extremely hot summers, with deeply troubling ramifications for not only our future but also for our present."
snip
Serious stuff. Deadly serious.
= new reply since forum marked as read
having said that, just the anecdotal stuff I've witnessed scares the crap outta me. 
when my nerves literally are shot, not just figuratively. 
The DU may be helpful dealing with some of the worry, but some info around here is poor and not to be trusted. Others are good and provide more context. There's more good information on DU than bad, though the environmental news is pretty bad lately, I have to admit.
Keep a wide perspective; that helps.
groups. A man of the cloth, with advanced degrees from a theological college in Missouri, a state which is able to grow plants from the East Coast as well as the west. He spoke like he was in jr. high school. You could never tell he had advanced degrees, and he deflected rather than respond to *any of my points. It was all God, guns and gays with him, but mostly how we Democrats, and I quote, passed a law that ushered in abortions to this country. He never acknowledged that it was the supreme court was even involved.
We never got to the climate stuff (I assume he is a dominionist). His lack of knowledge of even rudimentary stuff about how our government works was breathtaking, and I told him so, several times, with examples. I swear the man is unhinged. He will likely be the next one in a batman suit.
The result should not be surprising.
Last edited Sat Aug 4, 2012, 03:37 AM - Edit history (1)
and yet, the planet raping continues. We so deserve and worked so hard for this extinctive event horizon....
Perhaps maybe, maybe truly extinct, in the more distant future(1-2 millenia from now, in the absolute worst case, and that's being highly pessimistic!). But not so much in the near-term(2100-2300), and this kind of thing isn't really helping us.
I am more than happy to acknowledge that we are in serious trouble, but we have to lay off on the extinction of humanity language because it's only going to convince many to stick their head in the sand.......
Imagine if one day, the Euro finally hits the floor and breaks apart. Person A tries to lay out a rational explanation of what we may and perhaps will, mostly likely have to deal with in the coming years, and also how we can prepare for it, while Person B runs around screaming about WWIII, Mad Max, and the end of civilization. Who do you think more people are going to really listen to? The one screaming about Doomsday or the one who's trying to rationally inform us of what is going on and how we should try to prepare?
The truth is, I was once a skeptic, albeit not quite a 'denier' per se, and this is what turned me off to climate research and discussion for a while, and it was thanks to people like Peter Sinclair who helped me realize the facts, by not going so overboard with extreme scenarios while laying out the facts and saying what needed to be said.
I do understand your pessimism here, and frankly, there likely will be terrible consequences to deal with by the end of this century, major global feedbacks or not. What we need to do is try as much as possible not to scare people off, while the same time, telling the story that needs to be told; certain human activities are damaging the environment, our atmosphere and ice caps above all, and that something has to be done, ASAP.
I do hope we can succeed, of course. The longer we wait, the worse things will get, I think everyone here can agree with that. 
On the other hand, we will only be doomed if we keep resigning ourselves to such a fate(have you seen all those people claiming that humanity is actually going to go extinct for sure? Nuts! 
), and allow nothing to change. Rather, instead of resignation, we need to not only accept that things are indeed going downhill, but that we can, and should, continue to fight for our world, as we have been. If we continue on the correct and moral path, we WILL succeed(though I fear, as most do, that the longer we wait, the worse it'll get).
I was there this morning to refill water bottles and the spigots are dry. One gentleman was standing there in amazement - said he's been going to the spring for 25 years and has never seen this. One idiot suggested that the city "turned it off so they can tax it" and his equally-idiot wife said "How can it run out? It comes from under the ground!"
I took my dog for a walk in the woods near the spring & saw the skinniest, saddest looking doe foraging for anything green ... I don't think people have begun to realize the toll this is going to have on our wildlife.
Punishing you for masturbating while a teenager? 