Already climate change—in the form of a changing pattern of global rainfall—seems to be affecting the planet in significant ways. Take the massive, almost decade-long drought in Australia’s wheat-growing heartland, which has been a significant factor in sending flour prices, and so bread prices, soaring globally, leading to desperation and food riots across the planet.
Think a bit about that phrase—“without historical precedent.” Except when it comes to technological invention, it hasn’t been much part of our lives these last many centuries. Without historical precedent. Brace yourselves, it’s about to become a commonplace in our vocabulary. The southeastern United States, for instance, was, for the last couple of years, locked in a drought—which is finally easing—“without historical precedent.” In other words, there was nothing (repeat, nothing) in the historical record that provided a guide to what might happen next.
Now, it’s true that the industrial revolution, which led to the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere at historically unprecedented rates, was also, in a sense, “without historical precedent”; but most natural events—unlike, say, the present staggering ice melt in the Arctic—have been precedented (if I can manufacture such a word). They have been part of the historical record. That era—the era of history—is now, however, threatening to give way to a period capable of outrunning history itself, of outrunning us.
The planet in its long existence may have experienced the extremes to come, but we haven’t. The planet, unlike much life on it, may not—given millions or tens of millions of years to recover—be in danger, but we are.
The World at 350
A Last Chance for Civilization
By Bill McKibben
Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start—even for us, the world looks a little Terminal right now.
It’s not just the economy. We’ve gone through swoons before. It’s that gas at $4 a gallon means we’re running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It’s that when we try to turn corn into gas, it sends the price of a loaf of bread shooting upwards and starts food riots on three continents. It’s that everything is so inextricably tied together. It’s that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the “limits to growth” suddenly seem… how best to put it, right.
All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America, it’s dusk on planet Earth.
There’s a number—a new number—that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
A few weeks ago, our foremost climatologist, NASA’s Jim Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several co-authors. The abstract attached to it argued—and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper—“if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.” Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points—massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them—that we’ll pass if we don’t get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer’s insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us.
So it’s a tough diagnosis. It’s like the doctor telling you that your cholesterol is way too high and, if you don’t bring it down right away, you’re going to have a stroke. So you take the pill, you swear off the cheese, and, if you’re lucky, you get back into the safety zone before the coronary. It’s like watching the tachometer edge into the red zone and knowing that you need to take your foot off the gas before you hear that clunk up front.
In this case, though, it’s worse than that because we’re not taking the pill and we are stomping on the gas—hard. Instead of slowing down, we’re pouring on the coal, quite literally. Two weeks ago came the news that atmospheric carbon dioxide had jumped 2.4 parts per million last year—two decades ago, it was going up barely half that fast.
And suddenly, the news arrives that the amount of methane, another potent greenhouse gas, accumulating in the atmosphere, has unexpectedly begun to soar as well. Apparently, we’ve managed to warm the far north enough to start melting huge patches of permafrost and massive quantities of methane trapped beneath it have begun to bubble forth.
And don’t forget: China is building more power plants; India is pioneering the $2,500 car, and Americans are converting to TVs the size of windshields which suck juice ever faster.
Here’s the thing. Hansen didn’t just say that, if we didn’t act, there was trouble coming; or, if we didn’t yet know what was best for us, we’d certainly be better off below 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. His phrase was: “...if we wish to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed.” A planet with billions of people living near those oh-so-floodable coastlines. A planet with ever more vulnerable forests. (A beetle, encouraged by warmer temperatures, has already managed to kill 10 times more trees than in any previous infestation across the northern reaches of Canada this year. This means far more carbon heading for the atmosphere and apparently dooms Canada’s efforts to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, already in doubt because of its decision to start producing oil for the U.S. from Alberta’s tar sands.)
We’re the ones who kicked the warming off; now, the planet is starting to take over the job. Melt all that Arctic ice, for instance, and suddenly the nice white shield that reflected 80% of incoming solar radiation back into space has turned to blue water that absorbs 80% of the sun’s heat. Such feedbacks are beyond history, though not in the sense that Francis Fukuyama had in mind.
And we have, at best, a few years to short-circuit them—to reverse course. Here’s the Indian scientist and economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year (and, by the way, got his job when the Bush administration, at the behest of Exxon Mobil, forced out his predecessor): “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”
In the next two or three years, the nations of the world are supposed to be negotiating a successor treaty to the Kyoto Accord. When December 2009 rolls around, heads of state are supposed to converge on Copenhagen to sign a treaty—a treaty that would go into effect at the last plausible moment to heed the most basic and crucial of limits on atmospheric CO2.
If we did everything right, says Hansen, we could see carbon emissions start to fall fairly rapidly and the oceans begin to pull some of that CO2 out of the atmosphere. Before the century was out we might even be on track back to 350. We might stop just short of some of those tipping points, like the Road Runner screeching to a halt at the very edge of the cliff.
More likely, though, we’re the Coyote—because “doing everything right” means that political systems around the world would have to take enormous and painful steps right away. It means no more new coal-fired power plants anywhere, and plans to quickly close the ones already in operation. (Coal-fired power plants operating the way they’re supposed to are, in global warming terms, as dangerous as nuclear plants melting down.) It means making car factories turn out efficient hybrids next year, just the way we made them turn out tanks in six months at the start of World War II. It means making trains an absolute priority and planes a taboo.
It means making every decision wisely because we have so little time and so little money, at least relative to the task at hand. And hardest of all, it means the rich countries of the world sharing resources and technology freely with the poorest ones, so that they can develop dignified lives without burning their cheap coal.
That’s possible—we launched a Marshall Plan once, and we could do it again, this time in relation to carbon. But in a month when the President has, once more, urged us to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, that seems unlikely. In a month when the alluring phrase “gas tax holiday” has danced into our vocabulary, it’s hard to see (though it was encouraging to see that Clinton’s gambit didn’t sway many voters). And if it’s hard to imagine sacrifice here, imagine China, where people produce a quarter as much carbon apiece as we do.
Still, as long as it’s not impossible, we’ve got a duty to try. In fact, it’s about the most obvious duty humans have ever faced.
A few of us have just launched a new campaign, 350.org. Its only goal is to spread this number around the world in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality.
After all, those talks are our last chance; you just can’t do this one light bulb at a time. And if this 350.org campaign is a Hail Mary pass, well, sometimes those passes get caught.
We do have one thing going for us: This new tool, the Web which, at least, allows you to imagine something like a grassroots global effort. If the Internet was built for anything, it was built for sharing this number, for making people understand that “350” stands for a kind of safety, a kind of possibility, a kind of future.
Hansen’s words were well-chosen: “a planet similar to that on which civilization developed.” People will doubtless survive on a non-350 planet, but those who do will be so preoccupied, coping with the endless unintended consequences of an overheated planet that civilization may not.
Civilization is what grows up in the margins of leisure and security provided by a workable relationship with the natural world. That margin won’t exist, at least not for long, this side of 350. That’s the limit we face.
Bill McKibben is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College and co-founder of 350.org. His most recent book is The Bill McKibben Reader.
Email Newsletter
Get truth delivered to your inbox every week.
Previous item: Hezbollah Rules West Beirut in Iran's Proxy War With America
Next item: Baghdad's Other Power Struggle
Elsewhere: .
Comments
Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
AIDS and the Myth of the Oversexed Negro
Email
Print
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Ma.gnolia
Newsvine
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo
Jump to Comments
By Douglas Chalmers, May 14 at 2:47 pm #
If most of the Chinese who wanted to in the past century or so had, the USA would now be a very different place (90% Asian!).
Its no problem for them to spare a few 100 million people and if they had started when Cheng Ho discovered America 500 or 600 years ago, that’s exactly what would have happened, uhh.
Report thisBy hippy pam, May 14 at 6:23 am #
Does anyone REMEMBER WHEN CHINA? TRIED TO MAKE LAW-
Report this1? child per family?-This was a while back....People
IMMIGRATED TO THE U.S. so as NOT TO GIVE UP THE XTRA
CHILD....And of course the “god club” in the U.S. WELCOMED the NEW MOUTHS.....We Are A Virus…
Spreading and Infecting...A NOT VERY EFFICIENT VIRUS since we will kill the host[ess]....
By hippy pam, May 14 at 6:22 am #
Does anyone REMEMBER WHEN CHINA TRIED TO MAKE LAW-
Report this1? child per family?-This was a while back....People
IMMIGRATED TO THE U.S. so as NOT TO GIVE UP THE XTRA
CHILD....And of course the “god club” in the U.S. WELCOMED the NEW MOUTHS.....We Are A Virus…
Spreading and Infecting...A NOT VERY EFFICIENT VIRUS since we will kill the host[ess]....
By jackpine savage, May 14 at 4:05 am #
After all, it says in the book that He made us to be just like Him…
Report thisBy Lester Ness, May 13 at 2:51 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
“The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.” (Gospel of Matthew, 5:45)
Report thisBy Amon Drool, May 12 at 4:42 pm #
LOL.....thx doc, i needed that
Report thisBy Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, May 12 at 4:32 pm #
Ahh, Purple Girl, my child. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Who are you, or we, to question our Lord. He is supreme. He decides. We but do his bidding. Whatever good or bad happens, it is the will of the Lord. Try to remember that, my child. You, too, will soon come to the peace that passeths all understanding. You, too, will know that the Lord your God is Lord, my child. The Lord be with you. Verily. Thus.
Report thisBy Purple Girl, May 12 at 2:57 pm #
I want to hear Hagee’s ‘god Logic’ fro this weekends 900 Tornado whcih just ripped through the Midwest and Central East Coast- please Do tell what were Their Sins which elicited such a response from God? Surely a man of the Bible can explain the destruction to the ‘Bible Belt’. Considering th crimes against Humantiy by Myramar (Burmese ) Gov’t and the always present oppression of the Chinese citizens by their ‘Leaders’- maybe God is trying to tell You Soemthing He is Really Pissed about when it comes to the ‘Values’ expounded by some Who call themselves ‘Religious’ Leaders here I this country. Why is it though that your ‘God’ always targets teh innocent and not the Actual ‘Sinners’. Perhaps it is not ‘gods’ Work but the Devils who constantly Plagues manking with natural Disaster- You may be ‘Praising the Wrong Entity’ for it’s works in NOLA’s Katrina. Confirmation enough for me Hagee is a follower of Satan. Can’t have it both Ways ‘Pastor’- it’s either Gods Wrath or the Devils when it ocmes to these envionmental Disasters- Pick One and Stick to it, no matter who it effects. See how long your theory actually Holds water, when you stop picking and choosing between these natural events. Probably Better to admit they are the result of Global Warming and Not a Judgement by any ‘Supreme Power’
Report thisBy samosamo, May 12 at 11:49 am #
Hard not to notice the references back to the bible which is another attribute of the up and coming instability in the change of climate. And the peoples that cannot accept real causes thus their rush back to a god that will just point his finger to zap all the inferiors because he doesn’t like it that they exist.
Report thisAnd the instability and climate change that will be most inconvenient for most who have known only basically good clemment conditions will be most inconvenient. Thus the supernatural reasons.
By ChaxC, May 12 at 10:55 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
And maybe even a little ugly on the side…
Report thisBy Expat, May 12 at 4:07 am #
^ “You may think that you’re special because your brains so big that you need to be born prematurely; you walk on two legs; and you’ve got a fully opposable fifth digit. But you’re not. You’re just a monkey with a God that you made up.”
That’s us!
Report thisBy Expat, May 12 at 3:56 am #
^ took it out a little further and it needs to go further yet. We’re just going to burn until the fuel runs out; oh yeah we’ll talk and rail and blame and, and, and,...........What? I think the time for words is over, it’s all been said. Solomon in Eclesiastes said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” To this day, that is still true. JPS, I know you get it.
Report thisBy jackpine savage, May 12 at 3:39 am #
Expat summed it up nicely and got to a little matter that we humans generally refuse to consider.
We like to think that that we are better and/or outside of nature. Even the back to nature, tree hugging, hippy environmentalist types talking about “saving” nature. The very idea of which suggests a separation from it.
But we are just another species of animal. What we are doing is not really any different than any other species will do, given the opportunity. We have few constraints on our population growth, so it is exploding...with all the negatives that go with that. But like any population graph, we’ll rise until the environment can no longer sustain us...and then we’ll crash.
Hell, even the “noble savages” did it on a smaller scale.
You may think that you’re special because your brains so big that you need to be born prematurely; you walk on two legs; and you’ve got a fully opposable fifth digit. But you’re not. You’re just a monkey with a God that you made up.
Report thisBy jackpine savage, May 12 at 3:29 am #
Too true, we are dumb all over.
Report thisBy God?FreeDumb?, May 12 at 3:01 am #
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Report this17 ¶ And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/revelation_16.html
a great earthquake.
7.8 is not the great earthquake.
By Douglas Chalmers, May 12 at 1:35 am #
It may well be “redundant” but not “contradictory”. There has just been a strong earthquake in central China - damage unknown. Anything could happen yet - and anywhere, uhh.
Report thisBy Douglas Chalmers, May 11 at 11:31 pm #
I hardly think that the religious freaks should own this topic. It may be the end of the human race as we know it but not the end of the world. Still, co-operation can save us....... not conflict, uhh.
The La Nina is just over but an El Nino apparently hasn’t started yet. On the other side of the Pacific, El Nino is meant to infer more dry weather in Australia and affecting the monsoonal periods in Indonesia.
But there is little that has typified the failed expectations of good weather in Australia which has had a mixture of flood and ongoing drought in different areas at the same time. Does that mean the end for that weather pattern or is it changing in some unknown manner?
Low income people in Singapore have already received free food vouchers from their government to help with the soaring rice prices. That is a bad indicator. Now that Burma is suddenly short on rice, things can only get worse.
China has still been exporting some rice but they can’t maintain that with such a huge population to consider and any further bad weather events like the snow storms last winter and things will get harder.
Poorer countries have also been struggling with the high fuel prices for quite some time, especially where kerosene is used for cooking fires.
How is French FM Bernard Kouchner planning to “force aid” upon a billion people? How are Bush’s “sending US Naval assets” going to help feed a billion people? All of your aircraft carrier attack groups and all of your nuclear submarines are useless!
Man-made famines are nothing new. This is not entirely the fault of weather crises or global warming. Biofuels and colossal global financial and economic mismanagement and self-serving political imperatives are also significant factors........
See Bengal famine of 1943 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943
and The Ukrainian famine (1932–1933 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
and The Great Chinese Famine 1958-1961 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Years_of_Natural_Di sasters
Report thisBy Expat, May 11 at 9:51 pm #
^ Lovelock.
Report thisBy God?FreeDumb?, May 11 at 9:29 pm #
so you are now Smart?!
Report this16 ¶ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/genesis_2.html
1 ¶ Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/genesis_3.html
By God?FreeDumb?, May 11 at 8:45 pm #
the poor little cartoon-slave?
Report thisRich? not me.
I take it that you are Rich free and living abundant?
http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/luke_16.html
19 ¶ There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
By eredux, May 11 at 7:44 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Check out this interactive United States Carbon Footprint Map, illustrating Greenest States to Cities. This site has all sorts of stats on individual State & City energy consumptions, demographics and much more down to your local US City level…
http://www.eredux.com/states/
Report thisBy samosamo, May 11 at 7:10 pm #
I don’t go in for mythology. However the universe was created and built, I will use what abilities I was born with to exist and survive as long as I can and wonder at the unmatched greatness of nature and not some idea of a son of a big old white man with a big old white beard sitting on a big old white cloud deciding who he likes and what makes him so mad he cannot see straight.
Report thisSo NO I did not go to that link as it had ‘bible’ in the address.
By God?FreeDumb?, May 11 at 6:57 pm #
samosamo,
Report thisDid you read the comment just below yours?
did you bother to goto the link i provided?
the world does not come to an end.
however, the second coming of Christ does come.
a world without end AMEN.
By samosamo, May 11 at 6:48 pm #
First off, I am amazed to see ‘climate change’ instead of ‘global warming’ which is a part of ‘climate change’ and there is more tied up in the change in climate than just plain old CO2 excess but it too is part of the climate change.
Report thisBut both Morse Gist and Guffy have really hit on the topic of concern as far as the influence of climate change will affect. And it is 6.6 billion which I saw a couple of weeks back which puts it closer to 7Billion than 6Billion and that makes a difference.
I believe it will be the combination of human overpopulation, climate change,and the elites which combines politics, economics(part of politics)education and religion. And it all appears to be heading to a vector of too many people and the change in climate(which can and will happen faster than most people realize) with the elites playing their greed and criminal card for their benefit. With the 6.6B people using the last desparate attempts to get more from the earth, the planet will be left all too worn out to provide for all the people on it and it already is too worn out.
The tipping factor will be a shift in the climate that will really do the majority in. It may take a year or a decade but it will happen just as it has many times in the past.
Eugene Lindon has written a couple of informative books on the subject and I recommend them to any that are still trying to sort out the global warming and just what will in most all PROBABILITY come to pass but remember, forcasting the future is not an easy thing.
It will not be pretty but it should educate anyone who survives.
By God?FreeDumb?, May 11 at 6:04 pm #
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Report this20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/revelation_16.html
By Amon Drool, May 11 at 6:02 pm #
billy mac has cut thru a lot of the bullshit of our current historical moment. one wishes that an article like this would be a wake-up call to most and a call to action. but i’m afraid i share expat’s pessimism. as long as “it’s the economy, stupid” is in the saddle, we’re probably headed for a road warrior type world. (that is, if we manage to avoid nuking ourselves) my impression is that the concept of economy has lost the sense of proportion that it had in greek and religious world views. it has become too aligned with individual self interest and has now become a monster eating its own.
but...all thanks to bill m. for his clear-eyed adult warning. aahhh yes… pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the heart
Report thisBy Guffy, May 11 at 5:14 pm #
True, Morse Gist, we are in the midst of a population explosion, but it is a bit more complicated than just people having lots of babies. The thing is, here is America, each individual consumes the equivalent of like a family of seven from India. So, yes, we do need to work on population control, but on the other hand, us developed countries need to do our part to cut down on our own consumption/waste.
“The US has the resources to sustain less than half of its current population of 300 million. If all 6 billion people were to share the world’s resources equally, Americans would have to reduce consumption by 80%.”
<Overpopulation.org>
We MUST do our part!
Report thisBy Expat, May 11 at 4:41 pm #
^ I think it would be a fair statement to say we humans are stupid. With the U.S. leading the way in greedy, criminal capitalism, we have shown the world how to get rich; but this only works if one ignores the wreckage left behind in both human and environmental terms. Because of generations of touting our success the rest of the world now wants to emulate us and our “success”, which if anybody is looking, is crashing down around us as I write this.
Report thisWe are stupid and have doomed the rest of the planets civilizations /societies to a “Blade Runner” like world. We are stupid and future generations such as they will be will look back on us with disgust and wonder how we could have been so stupid.
If Lovelace’s Gia Hypothesis is correct, Gia will eliminate us to a manageable population level. Given historical evidence; we will not learn from our intrinsic stupidity. So as to leave no doubt; I think humans are stupid beyond measure.
By God?FreeDumb?, May 11 at 4:40 pm #
REVELATION CHAPTER 18
Report this1 ¶ And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/revelation_18.html
By yours trulyj, May 11 at 3:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
On The 5th Of November We Step Back From The Abyss
“How?”
“We elect a president who’ll end the Iraq War, negotiate with Iran plus turning things around here at home.”
“And then what sort of world?”
“A world at 350.”
Report thisBy jackpine savage, May 11 at 2:27 pm #
I think that the operative message in this essay is the end of civilization. We’re not really talking about the end of life, or even human life (though that would still remain a possibility). We certainly are not talking about killing the Earth...as much as some environmentalists like to use the phrase. Earth will carry on without us in some way or another.
But all the things - little and big - that we take for granted will be gone. The ease of stopping at the grocery store on the commute home from work. The commute home from work. The job. The school for the kids. The paper money from the bank. The government. The furnace for winter chills and the running water.
One could argue that the broad framework for solving a good many of our environmental problems is decentralization. If this essay and the paper that provoked it are correct, decentralization (in a nasty way) will be the result of not reigning in our waste. So we have a simple choice: decentralize proactively or reactively. The former offers the opportunity to make things better; the latter will be cause for unprecedented ugliness on a global scale.
Report thisBy Kathy Shrum, May 11 at 2:20 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Read James Lovelock, Gaia will take care of the population problem. She already is, Lovelock is right, She shrugs and a million of us die. It is odd though that we in the USA are really the one’s that caused this and so far our suffering has been so minimal though our country is drying up and once the Ogallala is all gone in five years maybe then we will wake up, whats the use of a big TV when you cant afford food? It is too bad the drought and ozone holes didnt start here, maybe if they had we would be willing to do the suffering necessary to save ourselves. At least people who are paying attention have a chance, Lovelock states the only habitabal areas will be the Arctic circle and I for one am figuring out how to get there.
Report thisBy G.Anderson, May 11 at 2:14 pm #
Our unstable climate is the result of several hundred years of mans activities on the Earth.
A process that is accelerating.
The inertia of earths climate systems takes a lot to move, and now that they are in motion, it will be dificult to restore them to an equilibrium favorable to human industrial civilization.
Recently James Lovelock, who coined the term “Gaia”, said that he believed it was already too late.
The natural systems that we have taken for granted are failing, civilization as we know it, cannot exist without them.
Hopefully, mankind can adapt, as we have done so many times in the past. If we cannot, then we will simply disapear from the earth.
All we can do now is try to cope with what’s coming.
Report thisBy tres, May 11 at 2:14 pm #
is there is no concrete solutions given. Merely pointing out possibilities will not make governments, and billions of people to change their life long behavior.
How come there is no efforts to have a project to map out who causes the most problems, a break by country/city/geographical locations, by per capital, by industry, and what causes the problems, such airline, train, cars, human, cows etc.
Report thisBy writeon, May 11 at 12:35 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
There’s a truly terrible irony and something close to a paradox involved in the way most people look at the threat posed by runaway climate change. That is by the time ‘ordinary people’ begin to take it seriously and demand substantial remedial action, things we probably be too late. This is a depressing prospect. When the truth about climate change is too obvious to ignore and is staring us all in the face and cannot be denied, it will simply be too late for us.
Report thisBy hark, May 11 at 10:49 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I’ve seen data that indicate 2007 was cooler than expected, and that a cooler trend might be in the offing for a few years before temperatures rise again. It’s not easy to find the data, which is a problem in itself. Googling for it can drive you nuts.
But if the cooling does occur, that’s the global warming tipping point. The public will be turned off. There’s no way they’ll buy any convoluted explanation that it’s just a short term phenomenon. They’re going to say global warming is a hoax, and even the data that scientists use confirms that. Any chance of doing much about it will evaporate, until record temperatures come again. It’s just the way people are.
Report thisBy Scott, May 11 at 9:23 am #
Fat chance indeed. Its been a cold winter and spring where I live and a very good year for GW skeptics. I’ve seen a lot of people I know hit their tipping points this year, I imagine the only thing that might reverse that is...another one.
Report thisBy Morse Gist, May 11 at 7:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
It seems to me that unless demand for more cars and more energy can be decreased, we may end up just treading water. Demand comes from, among other things, steadily increasing population growth around the world. “Population control” was a watchphrase in the sixties, but seems to have lost favor in recent decades, for what reason I don’t know. There are just a few organizations which even address it now, Worldwatch is one. But there need to be more. I bet if you asked James Hansen whether he thinks this idea may be worthy of pursuit, he’d say yes!
Report thisBy Jaded Prole, May 11 at 7:03 am #
Barring major revolutions emerging from the economic crisis caused by environmental change, I believe we are indeed witnessing the end of history. Whether we can adapt on a smaller level and at a much lower population remains to be seen but this cycle of civilization has run its course.
Report thisBy Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, May 11 at 6:33 am #
You’re asking the greedy and the powerful and the religious fanatics in the world to mend their ways.
Fat chance.
Maybe Bill can finally do something people have been trying for centuries to do. Maybe the survival instinct will kick in and people will start to listen, especially if they’ve already made their first billion.
Good luck, Bill. Get in touch with a good ad agency on Madison Ave. and see if they can help you promote this thing. You’ll need a couple good slogans and talking heads that’ll capture the imagination of the capitalists. That is, if Madison Ave. will have any interest in taking on your account.
Report this