Why is the subject of global warming been pushed to the back burner?

[lunatica]

All the crap going on politically and otherwise won't matter a whit when we all find ourselves fighting for physical survival because little to nothing is being done about what is possibly the biggest fucking problem to face humanity ever.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8236797.stm

Arctic temperatures are now higher than at any time in the last 2,000 years, research reveals.

Changes to the Earth's orbit drove centuries of cooling, but temperatures rose fast in the last 100 years as human greenhouse gas emissions rose.

Scientists took evidence from ice cores, tree rings and lake sediments.

Writing in the journal Science, they say this confirms that the Arctic is very sensitive both to changes in solar heating and to greenhouse warming.

The 23 sites sampled were good enough to provide a decade-by-decade picture of temperatures across the region.

How much energy we're getting from the Sun is no longer the most important thing governing the temperature of the Arctic
Nicholas McKay, University of Arizona, Tucson

The result is a "hockey stick"-like curve in which the last decade - 1998-2008 - stands out as the warmest in the entire series.

"The most pervasive signal in the reconstruction, the most prominent trend, is the overall cooling that took place for the first 1,900 years ," said study leader Darrell Kaufman from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, US.

"The 20th Century stands out in strong contrast to the cooling that should have continued. The last half-century was the warmest of the 2,000-year temperature record, and the last 10 years have been especially dramatic," he told BBC News.

On average, the region cooled at a rate of 0.2C per millennium until about 1900. Since then, it has warmed by about 1.2C.

end of article..

[lunatica]

1. ??

[patrice]

2. We're having a cool summer and that proof that GW is not happening.

I heard someone in a position of power over a few hundred people say that the other day.

[WyoHiker]

3. Its next

immediately after health care. In my cynicism, I think the plan is to wear us out with health reform so that no ones paying attention when the (currently tabled) energy bill goes to a vote.

man, i'm tired already.

[glinda]

4. I agree. I am pooped too. I think climate change is next.

[lunatica]

5. Yeah, I feel pretty worn down too

But that's a fight we really do have to win. This one with health care is very important but it fades in the face of famine and water wars.

[villager]

6. Been wondering myself since *everything else is moot* if we don't tackle this problem

...in some meaningful way.

Of course, the terrifying thing for Democrats is they would have to stop being corporatists, in order to actually address it.

Which is probably the terrifying thing for Repubbies, too (and why they're in total denial about climate change's existence....!)