All Alarms Now Ringing - The Question Is, Will We Do Something? - ABC News

[hatrack]

EDIT

For the record, in his latest publications Hansen calculates that we have 10 years in which to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid major upheaval that could well occur within the lifetimes of today's kids. Hansen says that lately he is beginning to feel that a rise of any more than 1 degree Celsius (roughly 2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the average global temperature will mean we're on "a different planet."

That's why it's unsettling to read today that Britain's chief scientist, David King, has just told the BBC that he now calculates that the world is likely to suffer a rise of more than not 1 but 3 degrees Celsius. He apparently bases this estimate on the belief, like Lovelock's, that no international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions will be reached anywhere near soon enough.

As we've noted before on ABCNEWS.com, the word "alarmist" is defined in the dictionary as "alarming others needlessly." Regarding the few remaining voices in the United States press corps calling the claims of so many preeminent scientists alarmist, I continue, from time to time, to check out the facts and logic behind these journalists' claims and arguments, and, I am sorry to report, continue to find them without substance or even, in many cases, any clear logic.

Global warming is not a politics story (though greatly politicized); it is an event, and as such needs not so much a political sort of "balance" as a rigorous perspective — as did, for example, the sudden explosion of Mount St. Helens in 1980 or the tsunami in Indonesia, except that global warming is far bigger and more complex than these events. I could wish there were some other authorities we could listen to about this, other than the thousands of credible scientists in the United States and around the world who, after decades of skeptical examination and debate, now bring us alarming news.

EDIT

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=1843086&page=3

[cassiepriam]

1. Nope, too busy eating easter candy and planning summer vacations...

can't be bothered with such topics as the planet going bye bye.

[saigon68]

2. Nope

They are drinking Moet, and buying their kids a new Jeep to beat around in.

They will never cut back

[Poppyseedman]

3. Writing nonsensical crap like this makes a person wonder

So, Lovelock argues, the only responsible action for governments to take now is to make plans to keep civilization going as long as possible, looking prudently forward to the time — he suspects it's within this century — when drought and famine have unsettled many governments, when international trade is greatly reduced and (one of his more disturbing images) those hearty humans who have managed to survive are among the few "breeding pairs" left at the polar regions, the only places he believes might still be tolerable for human beings.

What are professional journalists to do with assessments and images like that?

The instinct of a few has been to scoff and call them alarmist.

Professional whatevers, including myself, will scoff at this, too. "rolling eyes"

[nuxvomica]

4. It's not just a linear progression. There can be "tipping points"

No reason to expect changes won't accelerate. I was reading a report last week that plant growth is reduced if there is too much CO2 in the atmosphere because they don't get enough nitrogen. I always thought more was better in that regard but, as with all things in nature, the balance is critical. I just heard yesterday in a TV documentary that the earth has less than half the area of forestland it had since the beginning of civilization and most of that loss has occurred in the past century.

[brokensymmetry]

5. Answer:

No, we will not do anything.

To do something, we must cut greenhouse emissions a lot, and we must do it quickly. That's sure to mean economic disruption.

No elected administration - not in the U.S., not in the U.K., not in most places - will find it politically viable to take the actions which are required to mitigate climate change. I doubt that non-elected regimes could pull it off either. The third world has seen the American lifestyle, and they're grabbing for it with both hands - so even if Americans change their lifestyle completely, it won't matter. Our global destiny is set.

Our children will hate us, and our grandchildren - those few who survive - will hold us in contempt. And there is nothing you or I can do to change it.

[Delphinus]

7. Sadly, I agree with what you are saying.

Our children will hate us, and our grandchildren - those few who survive - will hold us in contempt. And there is nothing you or I can do to change it.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. We DON'T have ten years

We had ten years in 1980. We've blown every chance we've had since these problems first caught the attention of ecological scientists in the 1950s. The "alarm" should have been sounded during the IGY -- International Geophysical Year -- a kind of world-wide collaborative Earth-science year that took place in 1957.

Instead, we sat on our hands, and cultivated a mockery for the "hippies". ("Granola! Acid! Kumbayah!")

We should be putting our efforts into planning for "Seven (thousand) Lean Years". Pharaoh done messed up, and unless we use a few our our remaining collective brain cells, we will face a disaster of Biblical proportions.

--p!

[Pooka Fey]

8. No can do.

And for all the moral superiority that I'd like to feel, because I'm strong enough to actually READ your posts, Hatrack - I'm not doing a damn thing to reduce my consumption/carbon emissions (lean as it is because I'm income-challenged). Do I take the bus to work? No, because I need the extra hour of sleep. Do I prepare all home-cooked meals to avoid my part in clogging the landfills with all those styrofoam pizza box containers and plastic cheese slice wrappers? NO. Again - too damn tired. Am I willing to walk away from my gerbil-wheel life of working to eat so that I can work so that I can eat? Well - I'm thinking about it - more because I sense that that decision will be made for me as we increasingly feel the effects of Peak Oil than because it's "the right thing to do".

Whoever wrote in the post above that any meaningful change will NOT be possible in a democratic society was spot-on. It's not going to happen in a Corporatist society even more so. Whether you love or dislike Kunstler, he is a brilliant social observer, and he succinctly summed our collective response to the 'no longer coming but happening right now as we speak Long Emergency':

"We'll keep behaving the way we do until we can't, and then we won't."

[rfkrfk]

9. in 3653 days, what happens?

how was that number calculated?

what time of day?

[Dead_Parrot]

10. In 3653 days, you'll realise what we're talking about.

The formula is:
rfkrfk translates to 114,102,107,114,102,107 in ascii
As per the Bible, we go forth and multiply to get 1,548,023,686,416
counting up to ten is as easy as falling off a log, so log(10)1,548,023,686,416 = 12.1897776015672
Multipling by your 1000+ posts give us 12,189.7776
I like pie, but we have to share, so we'll divide by the pi to get 3,880.1267
E/E adds to your post count, so we'll take it back (69,47,69) to get 3,695.1267
And after doing all that, I realise there is no meaning to life, the universe or anything, so I'll take off 42: 3,653.1267

Which corresponds to 3:02:29 AM, the time you'll wake up screaming.

I might do a bit of that myself, actually.

[Massacure]

11. *sizzle sizzle* *crack crack*

Count me officially confused.

[Dead_Parrot]

12. My work here is done, then.

:D