Time is running out to act on climate change...an editorial from the Las Vegas Sun by Harry Reid

[The_jackalope]

6. I also pulled back from significant public commentary a few years ago

Though I was born and raised a strong atheist my preferred philosophical path for these circumstances is Buddhism. Buddhism helps one come to terms with impermanence and the suffering it causes.

We are out of time now because the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere (~700 ppm CO2e) guarantees a long-term temperature rise of 5 to 8 degrees Celsius (from page 12 of Sensitivity and the Carbon Budget pdf). As a result there is no remaining "carbon budget" to be exploited - but we're still burniung fossil fuels and leaking increasing quantites of methane into the atmosphere.

My main concern isn't sea-level rise, though that's what everyone chews their fingernails over. My big concern is that the disruption of the northern polar jet stream will probably damage crop harvests all though the northern hemisphere. That has already begun, and we are only at the very beginning of the real danger zone.