http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0222-27.htm
Hotter, Faster, Worser
by John Atcheson
Over the past several months, the normally restrained voice of science
has taken on a distinct note of panic when it comes to global warming.
How did we go from debating the "uncertainty" behind climate science to
near hysterical warnings from normally sober scientists about
irrevocable and catastrophic consequences? Two reasons.
First, there hasn?t been any real uncertainty in the scientific
community for more than a decade. An unholy alliance of key fossil fuel
corporations and conservative politicians have waged a sophisticated
and well-funded misinformation campaign to create doubt and controversy
in the face of nearly universal scientific consensus. In this, they
were aided and abetted by a press which loved controversy more than
truth, and by the Bush administration, which has systematically tried
to distort the science and silence and intimidate government scientists
who sought to speak out on global warming.
But the second reason is that the scientific community failed to
adequately anticipate and model several positive feedback loops that
profoundly amplify the rate and extent of human-induced climate change.
And in the case of global warming, positive feedback loops can have
some very negative consequences. The plain fact is, we are fast
approaching ? and perhaps well past ? several tipping points which
would make global warming irreversible.
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