It sure conveys a sense of the apocalyptic, doesn't it? It will get progressively worse and there's nothing anyone can do about it. The CO2 loading already in our atmosphere, without more, will heat our planet to dangerous levels for more than a century into the future.
What we're witnessing in these videos is the effect of just 0.8C warming since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. We know that the atmospheric CO2 today has "locked in" 1.5C of warming at least. A warming atmosphere is also a wetter atmosphere capable of retaining more water vapour. That warmer, wetter atmosphere is also far more powerful. That translates into severe storm events of increasing frequency, intensity and duration on into the balance of this century and well into the next.
We fail to recognize that, while we can't do much about what we've already put in motion, there's a great deal we can do to make the climate vastly worse, in some areas unliveable, over the next 2, 3, 4, and 5 generations. We can still stop that but we don't have the collective will to sacrifice today for generations as yet unborn. We won't raise taxes to eradicate today's child poverty so what are the chances we'll take meaningful action to benefit the newborn babies of 2080 or 3010?
Those able to make it through to 2030 or 2040 will witness, first hand, remarkable and devastating change which will demonstrate how fragile and divided our society truly has become. We'll have no resilience to meet these worsening conditions. That would require an enormous effort especially to fortify, repair and replace our core infrastructure, a Herculean effort with a very long lead time for analysis, planning and implementation. To do that in time, these programmes would already have to be underway and yet they're not even on the radar. It's a race we can't afford to lose but can't bring ourselves to start even though the economies our politicians obsessively nurture will be among the first victims.
Mound, thank you for a detailed and informative comment. I fully agree with you. I hope and pray that our politicians/leaders wake up and see the destructive path that we are on and the kind of legacy we will be leaving behind for the coming generations.
You do a great job on your blog through your posts on this issue. Please keep it up.
It sure conveys a sense of the apocalyptic, doesn't it? It will get progressively worse and there's nothing anyone can do about it. The CO2 loading already in our atmosphere, without more, will heat our planet to dangerous levels for more than a century into the future.
ReplyDeleteWhat we're witnessing in these videos is the effect of just 0.8C warming since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. We know that the atmospheric CO2 today has "locked in" 1.5C of warming at least. A warming atmosphere is also a wetter atmosphere capable of retaining more water vapour. That warmer, wetter atmosphere is also far more powerful. That translates into severe storm events of increasing frequency, intensity and duration on into the balance of this century and well into the next.
We fail to recognize that, while we can't do much about what we've already put in motion, there's a great deal we can do to make the climate vastly worse, in some areas unliveable, over the next 2, 3, 4, and 5 generations. We can still stop that but we don't have the collective will to sacrifice today for generations as yet unborn. We won't raise taxes to eradicate today's child poverty so what are the chances we'll take meaningful action to benefit the newborn babies of 2080 or 3010?
Those able to make it through to 2030 or 2040 will witness, first hand, remarkable and devastating change which will demonstrate how fragile and divided our society truly has become. We'll have no resilience to meet these worsening conditions. That would require an enormous effort especially to fortify, repair and replace our core infrastructure, a Herculean effort with a very long lead time for analysis, planning and implementation. To do that in time, these programmes would already have to be underway and yet they're not even on the radar. It's a race we can't afford to lose but can't bring ourselves to start even though the economies our politicians obsessively nurture will be among the first victims.
Happy trails, LD, happy trails.
Sorry, don't know where that "3010" came from. I meant 2110.
ReplyDeleteMound, thank you for a detailed and informative comment. I fully agree with you. I hope and pray that our politicians/leaders wake up and see the destructive path that we are on and the kind of legacy we will be leaving behind for the coming generations.
ReplyDeleteYou do a great job on your blog through your posts on this issue. Please keep it up.