Hot air, hell, and melting Arctic sea ice

[civildisoBDence]

NASA has confirmed that Arctic sea ice is melting, just as predicted by climate change theory. Worse yet, the sea ice is melting at an increasing rate, much like sea and air temperatures are rising an an increasing rate worldwide. Not only is global warming happening, its consequences appear to be accelerating.

Here's the link

Scientists further state that Arctic sea ice is melting even in the winter:

For more than 25 years Arctic sea ice has slowly diminished in winter by about 1.5 percent per decade. But in the past two years the melting has occurred at rates 10 to 15 times faster. From 2004 to 2005, the amount of ice dropped 2.3 percent; and over the past year, it's declined by another 1.9 percent, according to Comiso.

A second NASA study by other researchers found the winter sea ice melt in one region of the eastern Arctic has shrunk about 40 percent in just the past two years...

The ice is melting even in subfreezing winter temperatures because the water is warmer and summer ice covers less area and is shorter-lived... Thus, the winter ice season shortens every year and warmer water melts at the edges of the winter ice more every year.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration continues to drag its feet on global warming--feet that urgently need to be held to the fire. The right wing hate machine continues to provide cover to Bush and his corporate constituency as Limbaugh, Hannity, Boortz and their ilk blow hot air and ridicule the scientific evidence; worse yet, their brazen distortions are parotted by Congresspeople like Conrad Burns and James Inhofe, lending added credibility to the inane and mercenary skeptics.

There should be a special place in hell for these short-sighted, selfish, evil bastards. They put their precious belief systems and their financial well-being before the very fate of the planet. Life is less important to them than money or ideology, despite the fact that their own descendents will have to pay the price--along with countless people, plants, and animals worldwide.

There has never been an issue with more profound consequences for more living beings over a longer span of time. There has never been an issue involving such clearcut moral choices.

[Joanne98]

1. Rush Limbaugh is more responsible for killing the planet

than even the oil companies. The RAGE about this will be directed to him and his ilk. I hope they have fast airplanes to run with. They're going to need them.

[civildisoBDence]

2. The US produces the lion's share of greenhouse gases

If we think the invasion of Iraq has generated widespread hatred, wait until the consequences of global warming kick in.

DUHbya, Limpballs and the rest don't even have the best interests of the nation in mind--all they care about are money and power.

[Uncle Joe]

6. When the pudding hits the prop with the environment

Limbaugh and his ilk will be the new Neville Chamberlain, only worse. Having a global threat against civilization and the neocons appease global warming with their ignorance, denial and corruption.

[civildisoBDence]

7. What's sad is that by then they'll all be dead, as they well know n/t

[Gregorian]

3. The machine never sleeps.

When you turn out the light and go to bed, somewhere on the other side of the globe a car engine explodes to life. An entire city of Berlin awakens and the engines roar. Trucks move your orange juice from across the country. The generators turn, and your power never goes off. When you aren't shopping, the freezers in the stores are still freezing cold. The dental floss you used last night is being replaced. A new house is being built. And the wood to make it is being sawed down in the forest. People are commuting to jobs. And that's how it happens.

As long ago as the late sixties, even as a child, my dad and I used to commisserate over this issue. We knew it was coming. To us, it was obvious. We hypothesized that if cars were built with the exhaust pipes inside, people would drive less.

People don't realize what they're doing. Like Chomsky says, people know what the corporations don't mind them knowing. But it goes beyond that. We've grown accustomed to this life. People don't know that the car they drive is really a super violent explosive device. Take off the muffler and drive around. If everyone did that, it would be deafening. But we make sure we have mufflers. And we lose sight of the fact that we pilot exploding piston machines. This is the precise kind of disconnect that keeps us from seeing just what it is we are really doing. This is the way that we close our eyes to the poisons and caucaphony that we are really producing.

It's what we want, and what we don't know that are letting us continue. WE are the ones who are asking for the comfortable lives. Leadership can bring more people's awareness of this issued to the forefront. But only when we decrease our numbers, or take on a more natural lifestyle will the planet be able to sustain the stress.

[welshTerrier2]

4. "with the exhaust pipes inside"

a couple of months ago, i posted a thread that delicately hinted at the possibility of putting some restrictions on auto use ...

"HOW DARE YOU" was the overwhelming response ... well, they won't be living in their foolish little "pretend worlds" much longer ...

if we were aggressively proactive today, maybe, just maybe, the price we'll pay later won't be quite as severe ... but too few are willing to hear the truth today ...

[civildisoBDence]

5. Amen. It all comes down to individual decisions

I've started walking and biking to work, which makes me more healthy, more wealthy, and wiser.

But, it sometimes feels like I'm just throwing popsicles at hell.

Here's my little vision of the machine