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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Climate Change: Watch out for Angry Grandkids

Hot enough for ya? Meteorologist Paul Douglas notes that June was the warmest month on record. Not just the warmest in proximity of my or Bob Ellis's overheated blogs, but worldwide. That's four straight months of record global warmth, and 304 straight months with global temps beating the 20th-century average. This data isn't just one hot week or, for the paid deniers, one month of blizzards, says Douglas:

The trends are apparent to anyone taking the time to really look at the science. No one heat wave, month or year proves anything, but what we have here is a steady trickle of evidence, a gradual accumulation of coincidences that can no longer be denied. Melting glaciers, thinning arctic ice, rising sea levels, an uptick in drought and 1-in-500 year floods are all symptoms. The earth's atmosphere is running a mild fever. The question: do we believe the doctors and treat the patient now, or wait for those symptoms to worsen? It's not ideology, it's not a political litmus test, it's not a "new religion." It's basic science [Paul Douglas, "Thursday Flood Risk (and the most severe 30 days in Minnesota history?)," Minneapolis StarTribune: On Weather, 2010.07.21].

Douglas echoes the sentiment of The Age of Stupid, the speculative documentary the SDSU Sierra Club showed in Brookings last December, when it was awfully cold out. Douglas says a few words about the need to take responsibility for our energy consumption habits that ought to send a chill through the conservative obstructionists who love talking about personal responsibility on every other issue:

Our grandkids are going to be pissed. They will hold us accountable for sitting on our hands, bickering with professional scientists—waiting, hoping for a magic cure or "more evidence." ...I was taught that actions have consequences. We've been binging on oil, coal and natural gas for 200 years, most of the greenhouse spike in the last 50 years. This week China just surpassed the USA as the greatest producer/user of energy on the planet. Think we have a problem now? Just wait 10 years. You haven't seen anything yet [link mine; Douglas, 2010].

So, Senator Thune, keep fighting energy responsibility with every fiber of your being. Then be sure to eat well and use your government health coverage to live a long and happy life... so you can be around to explain to our grandkids why we wrecked their ecosystem and burned up all the easy fuel.

9 comments:

  1. What's "The American Way Of Life"? To gut our resources? To ruin the environment and place that burden onto our children and grandchildren? To put up and do corporate welfare -- to allow profits above of people?

    Usually those that have to resort to name calling or trying to make "liberal" a bad, bad mean name don't have much in terms of real content to refute or debate with.

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  2. Yeah, Kristi! You tell 'er, Lope!

    "mulencep"

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  3. I have a feeling that a whiff of sarcasm may have gone unnoticed...

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  4. Perhaps so..... my ears just aren't big enough to detect all written sarcasm. ;-)

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  5. Check that link on "Kristi" -- I suspect she's a product of the richly creative mind of another eager reader predicting exactly the response of the usual right-wing suspects. Nice!

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  6. No, not nice. I was almost suckered but noticed the same reference. We have enough real conflict and stupidity. Grow up Larry.

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  7. One more thing Larry. I don't know why you're writing that crap about Bob Ellis. If anything, being gay should make us realize we need to respect each other, even if they don't respect us.

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  8. Richly creative, Cory? Shirley not.

    Of course you're right, John. But grow up? That's unlikely; if it hasn't happened at 56, it probably ain't gonna happen.

    Btw. Did you follow that link at ip to Bob Fischer's remarks in the RCJ? Yikes! It's really excruciating finding a way to respect dorks like that.

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