Carbon emissions, Science, Technology
Climate Catastrophe is Taking Longer Than Predicted, so We Have To Explain Why the Danger is Still Real
We oversimplified climate change and underestimated nature’s resilience, but it’s still a matter of when, not if
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One-sixth of Bangladesh could be flooded, displacing a fourth of its 90 million people.
Shifting climate patterns would bring back 1930s Dust Bowl conditions to Canadian and U.S. wheat-lands,
A 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.
AP News quoting the United Nations Environmental Programme and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study.
The consequences of global warming are horrendous and there is need for action now
Climate change that is now apparently occurring mean that the Southeastern and Midwestern sections of the United States will be subject to frequent episodes of very high temperatures and drought in the next decade and beyond.
Dr. Hansen, director of NASA’s Institute for Space Studies, reported by the New York Times
These are familiar headlines, and you’d think people would listen. Don’t they realise how much trouble we’re in? The danger is now!
Except that those are quotes from 1988 (NY Times), 1989 (Preston and Leng), and 1997 (AP News).
Here’s a thought, and I say this as someone who accepts the science of climate change, maybe it isn’t surprising that so many are skeptics? Perhaps the wonder is that anyone does take it seriously?
Look at it from a skeptic’s perspective, and you might understand why they don’t think they need to surrender their lifestyle. Climate disasters did and do occur, but they don’t seem to do permanent damage.
- The extreme heat in Canada this summer caused disruption and even death, but the nation didn’t end.
- Snow in Texas broke the power network, but life in the Lone Star State continues as before. They’ll be ready next time.
