Daddy, could we have our planet back now?

[kpete]

Sunday, Jun 20, 2010 10:01 ET
Daddy, could we have our planet back now?
As they bask in the appreciation of their children today, fathers should think about the world they'll leave behind
By Joseph Romm

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We are plundering the world's "renewable resources" -- arable land and tropical forests and fisheries and fresh water. And we are using an ever-greater fraction of nonrenewable energy resources, especially hydrocarbons, with devastating consequences that will far exceed what we are now witnessing in the Gulf of Mexico.

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And if we listen much longer to those anti-science disinformers who have been counseling inaction, we won’t just be trashing the climate for our children -- we will be destroying a livable climate for countless future generations. A 2009 study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that "the climate change that is taking place because of increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop." What kind of changes? Well, besides destroying the oceans, the study warns of "irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the 'dust bowl' era and inexorable sea level rise."

The dust bowl that will hit the American Southwest and a half-dozen other heavily populated regions around the Earth will likely last far, far longer than the one that devastated the Great Plains in the 1930s. And the sea level rise could hit 4 to 6 feet by century's end and then continue rising a foot or more a decade, until all the land-based ice on the planet is gone and seas are more than 200 feet higher. How will our children's children and their descendants adapt to that?

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To refuse to place a price on carbon dioxide pollution is to ignore the damage your actions today will inevitably have on the health and well-being of your children and everyone else's children. Something to think about on Father's Day.

more:
http://www.salon.com/news/global_warming/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/06/20/fathers_day_climate_change