The evidence is overwhelming: on humanity's present course of inaction, world civilization has just *decades* left before it starts to unravel into famine and war caused by global climate change. Civilization might hold on for another 5 or 6 decades; it might collapse in as little as 15 or 20 years.
I am in no mood to debate climate deniers here. If you post a denialist response anywhere on leo-editor I will ban you instantly. For those of you who still don't get it, here is a comprehensive rebuttal of climate-denial cliches: 99 One-Liners Rebutting Denier Talking Points — With Links To The Full Climate Science http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/07/1972581/99-one-liners-rebutting-denier-talking-points-with-links-to-the-full-climate-science/ The catastrophic effects of climate change are not news, but the quickness of the impeding collapse was news to me just a few weeks ago. Here are some sources: An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/14/1009121/science-of-global-warming-impacts-guide/ Climate wars, by Gwynne Dyer http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Wars-Fight-Survival-Overheats/dp/1851688145 The Burning Question: We Can't Burn Half the World's Oil, Coal and Gas. So How Do We Quit? http://www.amazon.com/The-Burning-Question-Cant-Worlds/dp/1781250456 TED Talk: Climate Change is Simple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ktYbVwr90 Global Warming's Terrifying New Math http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719 It seems too late to hope for real governmental action to reduce CO2 emissions directly, though some government ministers are beginning to wake up. Here's something encouraging from today's news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22745578. Otoh, President Obama is finding it hard even to kill the Keystone pipeline! Hope for a carbon tax seems forlorn. The last, faint, hope is to discover ways of removing *billions* of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere and the oceans. This isn't completely impossible, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_removal, but the world needs to be removing those billions of tons of CO2 *now*. We are nowhere near doing that. At best, we have preliminary research, such as: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: P. furiosus turns CO2 directly into industrial chemical http://edreamleo.blogspot.com/2013/05/proceeding-of-national-academy-of.html You can also google "CO2 to fuel" to see other approaches. My children are increasing likely to die from the direct and indirect effects of mass starvation, wars, civil unrest and the general breakdown of society that ensures. The odds that my own generation of 60-somethings die from those effects are also increasing at an alarming rate. (Those who don't understand how such probabilistic statements could make sense might want to study Bayesian statistics. A good introduction from a recent pycon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bobeo5kFz1g) In short, business-as-usual and life-as-usual seem pretty much irrelevant. One part of the practice of mindfulness meditation is the development of the awareness of the "impermanence of all things". One exercise asks us to imagine everything (and everyone) around us disappearing or dying. Imo, this is an excellent spiritual practice. Alas, we can now see *how* everything will *actually* disappear. Way before we are ready ;-) It's a truly terrifying prospect. It is as if we were living in 1935, facing world war two without any hope of winning. The only positive responses I can see to this situation are A) telling as many people as possible about the impeding catastrophe in the hope that something might (finally!) be done and B) attempting to maintain as much personal equilibrium as I can. In fact, the famous zen story has always applied to everyone and everything: A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away at the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted! Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
