The Scientists Are Terrified

[Javaman]

https://gizmodo.com/the-scientists-are-terrified-1847973587

snip

These are the same folks who put out a major report earlier this year warning that this is essentially the most consequential decade in human history, one that will play a major role in deciding just how severe global warming will be for generations to come. In other words, they’re deep in it.

Nature heard back from 92 of the 233 living IPCC authors. The results show that six in 10 of the respondents expect the planet to warm at least 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius), a level that’s well beyond the Paris Agreement target of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). And it’s double the 1.5-degree-Celsius (2.7-degree-Fahrenheit) target that policymakers and researchers (including the IPCC) have identified as a relatively safe level of heating that would allow small islands to remain above sea level and protect millions from food insecurity and violence. Just 20% of the researchers, meanwhile, expect the world to meet the Paris Agreement 2-degree-Celsius target, and a paltry 4% think 1.5 degrees Celsius is in play.

Even more upsetting, 88% of the researchers expect climate change to unleash catastrophic impacts in their lifetimes. Of course, you could argue that’s already happening. Research has shown climate change is playing a role in making heat waves, wildfires, and cyclones worse. To take one example, the Pacific Northwest heat wave this summer that was dubbed a “mass casualty event” was made 150 times more likely due to burning fossil fuels. It went from being a 1-in-150,000-year event in the pre-industrial era to a 1-in-1,000 year event in our current climate. And with each passing year of rising emissions, the odds of more extreme heat like it will rise.

more at link...


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several years from now when we are in very deep shit and people are dying due to one of the very many disasters heading our way via climate change, you can point to only one person that contributed to it in a willing fashion, and no, I'm not talking about any one number of repukes (they have a long been jerks), but I mean someone that willingly stopped climate change measures from being put in the infrastructure bill, that person is: joe manchin. he put his greed and corporate masters way ahead of our current nation, the next generation and countless generations after. he snubbed his nose at piles of fact filled data, daily reports of some new increased urgency, yet another environmental disaster effecting millions all because of his mental disorder of greed.

you want a poster child for what is wrong with our nation? joe manchin is that picture.

[calimary]

1. Sad to say, climate calamities may force a large chunk of humanity

to die off.

And maybe THAT level of tragedy is what it’ll take to wake a critical mass of people up - to start making an actual difference in this crisis.

Unfortunately, we humans are the main bad guys here.

[Silent3]

4. Even if the climate turns into a major killer...

...I suspect half the blame will be placed on vaccines with nanobots, Jewish space lasers, wrathful deities pissed off by gay marriage, etc.

[Moostache]

12. The other half will be blamed on the usual suspects of history...

Minorities, the poor and Jews.

The second verse?
Same as the first...

The "plan" all along by the rich has been a massive die-off of the poor.
They expect to rule over the remnants of humanity as new royalty.

[Javaman]

25. but the irony is, if they kill off the poor, who will jump to their whims?

I know the irony of it all.

[wnylib]

58. They believe that AI bots will replace

the poor as their serfs.

[ZonkerHarris]

69. Counting on Skynet is their last mistake.

[Permanut]

70. And who will buy their cheap imported junk?

[llashram]

29. and the rich

will still think Mars is the way to survive...THE BEZOS, TESLAS...trumposts, millers, bannons et al.

[Silent3]

30. In the binary sense of total extinction vs. any level (however meager) of non-extinction...

...it's not incorrect to consider Mars a survival option, a place that (with a lot of time, money, and effort) could be turned into a second home for a small portion of humanity in case Earth were totally wiped out by a catastrophe like a giant asteroid strike.

There's no reason to suppose, however, that total extinction is just around the corner. The loss of millions, even billions of lives from climate change is a much more important looming threat. That makes putting the most effort into keeping Earth as livable as possible the greatest priority.

It's not a zero-sum game. however. It's always good to be doing a little forward-thinking investment as long as higher priorities are well funded. That's going to take global political will from everyone, not just the billionaires.

[llashram]

31. tipping point(s)

reached?

[Silent3]

35. Even if we're at a tipping point in climate, and major warming occurs...

...it will not cause complete and total extinction of humanity. We're pretty durable as a species, if not individually. We can survive in a wide range of climates, we aren't dependent on a very specific diet, and are generally very adaptable. Kill us off by the billions and billions, and the few million who remain will struggle by somehow and eventually rebound.

People should be sufficiently motivated to save billions of human lives, and the lives of so many other species we're dragging down with us, without going the extra, unnecessary and unsupported step of imagining climate is an issue of total extinction.

[llashram]

36. I hope you're right but

while "should be" the majority yet so far are not..."motivated". And billions will probably expire. The millions left...well...hard row to hoe.

[paleotn]

38. Operative words for Mars 2.0 ...time, money and effort

Time.... Most of the billionaires won't be alive when we develop the capability to do more than a few Apollo type missions to Mars.
Money.... Other than said Apollo type missions, the cost will be trillions upon trillions. Bezos, Musk and Putin are rich, but not that rich.
Effort.... Worst of all...atmospheric escape and virtually no magnetic field. We don't have a clue how to fix those problems on Mars. Terraforming is generations perhaps centuries away. We don't have that kind of time.

[Javaman]

43. you see the irony of what your saying right?

mars is completely inhabitable right now, but with time an effort it can be made habitable.

why not just put that time an effort into the earth? we already have water and a breathable atmosphere.

why reinvent the wheel when the wheel is already moving you?

I know the weathly, their billions and their hatred of the poor.

[Silent3]

48. Developing Mars is for a different kind of survival goal

Besides, I think I made it clear that I'm not arguing that saving Earth isn't a higher priority at the moment.

For the long term, however, having more than one planet to live on is the only way to ensure (or at least, greatly increase) the chance of human survival, and perhaps the survival of any sort of earthly life. The Earth being destroyed either by natural disaster, or by much worse man-made threats that we haven't created yet, is a real possibility.

[hunter]

81. In the long run most earth species don't survive. More than 99.9% are extinct.

The universe is big and we humans are nothing special, except to ourselves. This earth has seen many innovative species come and go, mere flashes in the pan.

I doubt humans will ever have a significant presence in space beyond Low Earth Orbit. But if we are not complete idiots, maybe our intellectual children will. These will be engineered beings who can walk naked in places that would rapidly kill a natural human, places like the surface of Mars.

If I thought saving our species off-planet was important (I don't) I'd put my money into the development of artificial intelligences that reflect our own.

Unfortunately the Star Trek future is probably impossible in this universe and faster-than-light travel is fantasy.

I suspect that species who do escape their home planets and thrive end up creating their own universes which are more to their own liking and inaccessible to this one. That explains the Fermi Paradox quite neatly with a minimum of fuss.

[HuskyOffset]

78. Inhabitable?

I think that word means the opposite of what you were trying to say (I’m assuming you were going for “not habitable”.) Uninhabitable I think is what you’re looking for.

[roamer65]

51. Humans are like rabbits in Australia.

A lot of parallels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbits_in_Australia

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. A big, fat K&R!♥

[Ohio Joe]

3. K & R - nt

[Jim__]

5. Yes, and our conservative Supreme Court is going to decide if the government can regulate ...

... carbon emissions.

From The Washington Post - probably behind a paywall.

The Supreme Court on Friday took up cases that could limit the Biden administration’s ambitions on climate change and immigration policy.

The court granted a request from the coal industry and Republican-led states challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit greenhouse gases from power plants, which could threaten a key plank of President Biden’s climate agenda.

And it said it would hear a case that would allow conservative states to defend a Trump-era limitation on issuing green cards to noncitizens who may rely too heavily on government aid, which the law calls “public charges.”

In both cases, the Biden administration’s solicitor general had asked the court not to intervene.

...

Because protecting the polluters right to pollute is more important than addressing an on-going global catastrophe.

[Bluethroughu]

6. I've told my kids don't have kids and we're sorry for what you'll be dealing with in your lifetime.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

62. I get it, but

That makes me think of idiocracy.

We care so we dont reproduce. The QOP keep spitting out kids with no regard. Carry forward the iterations and we are filled with a country that runs Hummers off of coal because we ran out of oil, and target practice begins in kindergarten. The ones who remain on our side will have no hope.

[Bluethroughu]

75. I understand, but the weight of global warming on our childrens'

Shoulders will be painfully heavy, and it would be worse caring for children while trying to fix a broken planet.

Maybe those mega-producers will be to busy trying to care for their kids in that environment so policies and resources can be used to make drastic change.

[triron]

7. Maybe the Stupids are winning. Not conducive to natural selection for humans.

Unless the Stupids are selected against survival.

[Javaman]

9. the stupids will die via natural selection.

they are too stupid to believe science or the world around them.

remember survival of the fittest has nothing to do with guns or strength.

[Ohioboy]

27. But stupids often take non-stupids with them

Such is the case with pandemics and man made climate change.

[bronxiteforever]

8. Kick and recommend.

[SoCalDavidS]

10. Sorry, But I Just Don't Care Anymore

I'm 55 and childless, and the main thing keeping me in this country, is the fact my parents are still alive.

I am sorry for those in upcoming generations who will suffer, but honestly, I feel like with most things I am in fear of these days, this is a complete lost cause.

Whether it's Gun Violence, the Lack Of Accountability for Insurrectionists and those who enabled them, or Infrastructure, or Climate Change, or Abortion Rights, I realize that NONE of those will change for the better during my lifetime, so I'm just going to ride it out and see what happens. Let those who are Fucking everything up, be held Unaccountable, because that's the way this country rolls.

Only thing I wonder is whether Shit Will Hit The Fan prior to my death in terms of climate change. But do I expect anything more than window dressing over the coming years and decades? No. No, I do not.

[Javaman]

11. I'm 58 and I fully expect the shit to hit the fan before I shed my mortal coil.

also, depending on where you are in the country, it could be sooner than later.

[SoCalDavidS]

13. Feels Like The Angrier I Get, The Less Is Done To Change Things

I know that we at DU are supposed to right the ship, and direct our elected officials in the appropriate direction.

Yet, we show our concern, and little changes.

Of The People, By The People, For The People, is a complete Joke!

While having Democrats in power is a great stop gap measure, it is not moving the needle. And since the Democrats don't always have the means to change things for the better, when the repubs take power, they will make things worse.

So in the end, we will get worse, that's the bottom line.

Only question is whether some of us will be around to say "Told Ya So."

[Javaman]

21. I know what you mean

I didn't have kids either. I made that choice when I was still in my teens, mostly due to a screwed up family, but also because I had been an early environmentalism for someone my age and I saw what was coming. I saw that no matter what was done to improve things, the very next round of repubs could just as easily undo what was done.

So I just do what I can to improve my very teeny tiny bit of the universe as best as I can. I know in the end it will all be for nothing but at least I can say I tried.

that will be what I will say, not I told you so, but at least I tried. >shrug<

we all feel helpless sometimes and sometimes all the time, but I feel, even though I'm pretty much shoveling shit against the tide, I'd rather die trying than letting it engulf me. that's the only thing that keeps me somewhat sane in the face of life ending calamity insanity.

[llmart]

41. I think I'll adopt your mantra...

"at least I tried".

I have been a proponent of voluntary simplicity, and even though I have the financial means to pretty much shop and buy crap every day, I made a decision a very long time ago that I couldn't live with myself if I contributed to the demise of our beautiful planet. I only hope that at the very least some of the people I know personally have adopted that lifestyle also. I know my best friend said she has because of seeing my example.

Could I have done better? Of course I could. Every day I try to be a better steward of the earth than the day before. I've been at this since the first Earth Day. Jimmy Carter was my hero. I hated Reagan being elected with a passion and it's been downhill since him. Back in the early 1990's Rush Limbaugh raved against the "tree huggers" and said global warming was a hoax and millions listened to that drivel and believed him.

So, on my deathbed I'll say to myself "at least I tried".

[Javaman]

72. +1😀

[Ferrets are Cool]

39. I feel much the same.

Even when "we" are in power, little changes. It is certainly frustrating.

[Moostache]

16. I just hit 50 this year, I am 100% sure the worst will start in my lifetime.

I expect WWIII to be initiated in the next 20 years and I expect billions to die from the wars for resources, habitable areas and arable land for agriculture.

If I were Canadian, I'd start building natural barriers to prevent mass invasions and migrations because everything south of Minnesota is likely to be wasteland by 2060 or earlier.

If I were rich, and accustomed to being worshipped for my 'wealth' and not my ability, I would strongly consider offing myself to avoid the culture shock of suddenly becoming worthless and hated instead of getting unearned privilege and adulation for the things they buy or more correctly rent in life.

India and Pakistan will launch on each other within a decade as the climate makes large swaths of the area uninhabitable due to 50 C plus temperatures and a lack of water. The starvation and unrest will lead to politicians using the usual hates and racial / religious bigotry to blame an external "other". The launches will be cheered in both places. The fallout will contaminate 1/4 of humanity in Asia and the Pacific.

The Middle East will erupt in open holy wars and genocidal madness, not much different than current Israel, but everywhere instead of Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Europe and America will suffer internal wars that will pit authoritarians and dictators against republics and democracies. There can only be one winner in this conflict and only one side is insane enough to contemplate use of nukes on their fellow countrymen and that side is not the one I am firmly on...

Without a fundamental shift away from Capitalism, consumer culture, advertising and the inherent wealth concentration and strife between labor and capital and profits over purpose, humanity in its current form is doomed. The scientifically literate will become the equivalent of wizards and some will use their knowledge for good, others for evil and many will simply be killed by local war lords and power grubbing strongmen. The ability to grow food, manage livestock and repair machines will be akin to being an 11th century priest in medieval Europe.

The current glide path we're collectively on makes this depressing tome more prediction than hair-on fire panic and that should terrify EVERYONE...

[roamer65]

52. Yes.

There will be attempts to migrate into the Great Lakes basin. It will be one of the last sources of fresh water.

We really need to think about secession and joining with Canada to limit migration into the area.

[JanMichael]

53. 54 and I agree. 2030ish through 2070 will be the transition to BIG fire, flood, war, famine, world.

The scale of the shit hitting the fan will be mind numbing if we are still around.

Great time to retire, right? Gen X gets fucked one last time. All generations after X also get screwed but we were almost to the finish line. We were ready to kick the winning field goal and Lucy pulls the f-ing ball right before we kick.

The generations ahead of X will mostly be gone so they won't have to feel guilty. We will be roasted on a spit.

Makes me want to buy a compound in some mountain or hilly area way north of the equator. Solar the thing out, drill multiple wells, grow and can/dry a ton of beans and other food, sit in a comfy chair, sharpen my hunting knife, and stare at the door.

[Kaleva]

14. I can't control others but I am spending much time preparing to adapt to what's coming.

[SoCalDavidS]

15. Probably A Wise Idea

Knowing that it's coming, probably puts you ahead of half of America's population, and ahead of 3/4's, in terms of taking steps to prepare.

[Javaman]

22. I bring this up from time to time but some friends that I have had a child and they were

pondering what their future would be like. this was 7 years ago.

I told them bluntly, teach her how to shoot a gun, get her self defense lessons, make sure she learns Chinese, Spanish or Arabic or all three. have her learn how to derive water from the air, hunt for food, and till the land.

then learn how to fix small engines or work with wood.

they looked at me like I was crazy.

and here we are.

they are still my friends, but they didn't listen to me. >shrug<

[Kaleva]

59. I've been learning new things.

One this year is what weeds in my garden are edible. It was rather a nice surprise to learn that the weed that is most prolific in the garden is edible, Purslane. I've made salads of purslane, dandelions, pigweed, plantain and clover. Not only do i weed in the garden now, I gather ingredients for my lunch!

Your comment:

"then learn how to fix small engines or work with wood."

I very much agree! It'd be wise for those who can to take courses at a local community college that teaches such or take on line courses. Acquire skills that will help one self and be in demand by others.

[Raine]

26. I'm starting to feel that way myself

my number one issue along with animal rights had always been the environment. Lately though I feel those in power don't really care, talk, talk, talk is all they do. It all sounds good but nothing much comes of it. I'm not letting myself get emotionally involved anymore. I care but I've decided to pretty much accept the inevitable. I feel for those who have kids (I don't, thank goodness) but I'll have to leave it to those future generations to deal with.

[roamer65]

49. Same here.

Childless and thanking the cloud beings for it everyday now.

We will definitely see the leading edge of the Great Climate Crisis.

[Evolve Dammit]

65. I'm older with kids, and parents have passed, but I'm not disagreeing with anything in your post.

[The Jungle 1]

17. The climate is changing and I fear we will do nothing. The part no one wants to talk about is:

When whole countries and their societies collapse because they have no water or food THEY WILL MOVE. The conflict will be massive.
We are already destroying aquifers all over the world. Aquifers that will take 100s of years to replenish.
The entire west is a borderline desert now. 40% of the water California uses comes from the aquifer. They are depleting the aquifer up to 3 feet per year.

[roamer65]

50. ...and there will be areas that attempt to stop them.

Such as the Great Lakes basin.

Wars are coming.

[Kaleva]

60. You'll see massive movement of people right here in this country.

[NullTuples]

18. Wealthy capitalists LOVE the Prisoner's Dilemma game b/c they can influence the outcome

And then after they die, well who cares, right?

[AllaN01Bear]

20. as said by gretta thornburg, we had 50 years or more to clean up our act but,

nothing but blah blah blah.

[OMGWTF]

24. I live in the little town of Issaquah, WA (Costco's World HQ) in the foothills of the Cascade Mtns

where it's lush and evergreen. On July 20th it reached 116 degrees F. It's never ever done anything close to that in the PNW and I grew up here. Unfortunately, that was also the day we moved to a new home down the street. It was unbearable, especially since virtually no one has A/C in their homes.

[ancianita]

28. Joe Manchin's owner-donors -- they're poster child for what's wrong. joe manchin's their tool.

They are Paying him and other Democrats to give them just a few more years of Big F'n Profits.


https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=E


We have to make sure to pass the For The People Act to make sure they don't.

[rurallib]

32. While I would love to throw all the blame on Manchin, he could not do what he is doing

unless not one of 50 fucking Republican senators had enough guts to stand up for what is right. One fucking senator.

What a bunch of cowards. And they are more than happy to see Democrats get blamed for everything while they sit on the sidelines laughing and getting away with MURDER.

[bucolic_frolic]

33. I think we're doomed

The point of no return was about .... 2008? When every house and vehicle became larger and larger, so opportunities for energy savings were lost.

I worry about insurance rates from global catastrophe. But it sure takes years to downsize into less risk and instant mobility.

[Magoo48]

80. I'm an a apocaloptimist.

I believe the world is going to tank, but in the very long run the planet will be fine. What form life will take is a mystery. There is tiny life living at depths of thousands of feet into the Earth’s crust. There is life miles and miles under the Sea. Whether any form of primate survives— who knows.

My point is, i will fight as best I can for the futures of my kids and grandkids. I will be dinged DU for heavy criticism heaped upon Dem greenwash, horseshit, and smokescreens. I will lose more friends for simply discussing climate science, oh well.

COP26 is a fucking circle-jerk. The real wisdom and solutions are outside with Greta, other young leaders and their army of young hearts. I’m with them until I cannot stand any longer. They are much better company.

[FakeNoose]

34. Yep I trust the scientists

... and yet ...

... the world's psychics have been saying exactly the SAME THING for at least 50 years, probably longer. I've been reading and following psychic predictions since my early 20's and the main story is that this is happening, and there's basically no way to prevent it.

The scientists deal in percentages, well maybe this or maybe that. But the psychics are all 100% sure it's a done deal. They say it's already too late to "fix" anything. We're watching this disaster happen in slow-motion. We reap what we sow, and you can't get more "Old Testament" than that.

[Aussie105]

37. A bunch of lichen growing on bare rocks . . .

Happy, they are.
The dominant life form, nothing can stuff things up for them.

Except . . . over decades, the acid they use to extract nutrients from the rock, breaks it down, forming a thin layer of soil that collects in crevices.

Grass seeds blow in and take over as the dominant life form. Lichens wonder what went wrong.

Grasses tie up the soil some more, give way to low growing plants.

Over millennia, the rocks are now soil, and large trees are the dominant life form.

What went wrong? Nothing, it's called SUCCESSION.
Google succession on Krakatoa, turned to bare rock after a volcanic eruption, now back to a fairly lush tropical island.

Simple concept - the dominant life form uses natural resources and as a consequence, degrades the environment to the point where it is no longer suitable for them.
And that is all humans are doing.

Climate change and it's future negative impact on Humanity has been known to be a thing for a long time, the talk about how serious it is and we should do something about it, is just that - talk, with no effective action.

Sad but true. Humanity is the planet's worst enemy.

We have an ant colony nearby. When their numbers get too large, they come closer to the house looking for food.
I restrict their numbers and range with poison. Control their numbers, and I control their need to invade.

Now, I can't really suggest that for the human race, can I?

[Irish_Dem]

40. Why won't the wealthy/powerful stop climate change?

Do they think it will be easy to migrate off planet?

Or they can find some hidden spots here on Earth for safety.

Do they think climate change will benefit them in some way?
They can make money off the food shortages, the housing shifts, etc.?

Or scared, hungry people will work for cheap wages?

[totodeinhere]

55. I think they originally believed that the worst of it will not happen in their lifetimes.

And they also know that it is always the poor and the powerless who get hurt the most. Rich people will be affected the least by climate change because they will have the resources necessary to at least partially cope with it. Meanwhile, the average person will be out of luck.

[Irish_Dem]

57. And they think their offspring can evade climate change because they are rich.

They don't see a need to pay for something that only benefits the non rich.

[burrowowl]

42. K&R! Good article!

[waterwatcher123]

44. There were plenty of people who saw this coming years ago - no one listened.

We need to get the states to go after the climate deniers (fossil fuel companies) for every dime they are worth. Their own scientists knew that runaway climate change was a certainty if the carbon stored in every plant or animal that ever lived on planet Earth was released into the atmosphere. The Koch Brothers, the Electric Power Institute, the coal companies and all their AstroTurf organizations spent millions of dollars trying to confuse and discredit anyone who dared raise these issues in the public sphere. So, here we are years later in a crisis situation that requires the equivalent of war time response.

Our former attorney general, Skip Humphrey, took on the tobacco industry and forced them to do all sorts of things to compensate victims, to limit childhood advertising and to pay for smoking cessation programs. This suit was replicated nationally and the tobacco companies and their insurance providers paid millions-upon-millions to settle each suit. We need to do the same with fossil fuel companies and their enablers. The lawsuit proceeds can then be used to minimize climate change impacts to those least able to fend for themselves. Maybe encourage your state AGs to consider these climate change suits right now and then follow that up with requests to all your investment funds to divest from fossil fuel companies (worked for Apartheid in South Africa).

It is very hard to think you can do much about this problem. But, the alternative is desperation and dis-empowerment. I am sure previous generations thought the world was coming apart too. Somehow they rose above their desperation and decided they were not going to go quietly into the night.

[Javaman]

45. Once upon time, when there was a real educational system in this country...

my 5 grade teacher, back in 1974, told us that even a 1 degree rise in the global temps could change the worlds weather in unimaginable ways.

I never forgot that and carried that with me my entire life.

why I got into environmentalism and got solar panels, etc.

thank you Ms. Kabacoff.

[Dystopian Optimist]

46. From June of 2017

Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future

I'm sure nothing has reduced their fears in the 4+ years since.

[roamer65]

47. I expect suicide rates to go near exponential over the next 20 years.

Especially when it becomes very obvious of the irreversible path of the human race to disaster.

[totodeinhere]

54. I hate to say it, but that conference in Scotland was just words. Just like the climate conference

six years ago, all that most of those politicians were doing was blowing hot air. Lip service is all we will ever get. And even if all of the president's proposal for climate change funding is adopted, which I support, it's too late and it will make little difference since countries like Russia, China and India will keep polluting. I will not live to see the worst of it although it's bad enough already. But I fear for my children and grandchildren. And it's frustrating to have to say that those blowhards who met in Scotland will really do nothing about it. And I wonder how much carbon was emitted by all of the fancy private jets used to ferry them to that conference. Let's face it, humanity is already screwed.

[Javaman]

73. What I find darkly amusing about that conference is

They all flew there, that probably had catered meals with much of the food imported, all the power needed to heat that building(it is Scotland).

Most, if not all of which, could have been saved if they had the conference via zoom, but, you know, that’s not “sexy” enough.

[calimary]

56. They're not the only ones who are terrified.

[NullTuples]

61. Oh, they've been "terrified" since the 1970's

When the so-called "Greenhouse Effect" was first named, measured and confirmed.

They tested their results. And re-tested them. Over the years they built better and better models, and those models confirmed that if we didn't stop releasing millions of years of carbon into the atmosphere in the short span of 200-300 years, we would cook this planet.

We are cooking this planet. We are up on, and approaching vertical part of, The Curve. You remember the one.

Meanwhile, Capitalists - the wealthy investor-owners who profit from extracting & selling carbon based energy - used some of those profits to buy politicians.

They bought a lot of politicians, and it was a good investment for them.

Not so good for the rest of us.

But hey, they can afford to buy homes in the last refuge areas and then die of old age.

Capitalists *love* the Prisoner's Dilemma Game when they have control over the variables, and in our society they always have control over the variables.

[Evolve Dammit]

63. And 30 years of spewage from Presidential Medal of Freedom winner: Rush Limbaugh. No RIP.

[Kablooie]

64. I just heard a report saying that we just have to start thinking how to live with climate change.

It's too late to stop it.
Even if the whole world stopped emitting CO2 today it wouldn't be stopped, just slowed down.

We have to start planning how to live with much higher oceans wiping out islands and ocean front cities, more intense hurricanes, wildfires, extreme drought and floods, elimination of much of the world's farmland and large swaths of the world with unliveable temperatures.

It was a report on the NPR Hidden Brain Podcast.
https://omny.fm/shows/hidden-brain/we-broke-the-planet-now-what

[Kaleva]

71. Some of us here have been talking about adapting for a couple of years now.

Here's a link to a post I made back in Jul of 2019:

"How much effort are you putting in to adapting to climate change?"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212322506

[bucolic_frolic]

66. Club of Rome report was pooh-poohed in the early 1970s

Club for Growth ignored all warnings. Greed has gotten us here. Bankruptcy won't get us out.

[czarjak]

67. STOP GLOBAL WHINING bumper stickers were hilarious?

[NNadir]

68. If one thinks that it's just Joe Manchin, George Bush, or all the demons, they should think...

...again.

The problem is basically one of dogma and the inability to look at data and admit that one's sacred cows are just big animals that shit a lot.

We have our own dogma.

Here on the left there are many of us who think that this issue is best addressed by electric cars, wind turbines, solar cells and batteries.

This is nonsense, thermodynamic nonsense. The laws of thermodynamics - on which all energy depends - are not controlled by political opinions; nor are they determined by bad guy demons, and for that matter, by assholes like Elon Musk. They are immune from marketing and wishful thinking does not affect them.

They are physical laws.

It's really time to stop blaming "someone else." It's time to look in the mirror, get serious, and think anew.

I first began to think seriously about climate change in the 1990's, and energy as a general subject in the 1980's after Chernobyl exploded.

That with which I came away would have shocked my younger self, but I can say I saw this coming, as clear as the sky in a high desert at night.

I screamed rather loudly about it here and elsewhere, but other people here, not me, got what they wished for.

This is the result.

The mirror is a very useful tool, but only if one looks in it.

[hunter]

74. Never forget, people are made of meat.

And the most powerful people in today's society are the most delicate snowflakes who have all sorts of stuff that can be repurposed.

.


.


.

[nelsonarcherdd31]

76. The Scientists Are Terrified

woahhh

[BumRushDaShow]

77. So what do you think of it?

[2Gingersnaps]

79. Manchin did what a coal baron would do,

considered how dead he would be when the shit really hit the fan, and how much he enjoys that yacht, and put himself first. Leadership dontchaknow. Ohio just elected another coal lobbyist, Mike Carey, to replace Steve Stivers in the 15th Congressional district. Just the kind of guy you would expect from the "drain the swamp" types..... a complete crook. Hypocrites.

[llashram]

82. one of them, for sure