Frankly, the world as we know it is going away, soon.

[AverageJoe90]

108. As bad as things are and could (plausibly!) get.......

Last edited Tue Sep 25, 2012, 10:15 PM - Edit history (1)

We will still be here. Let's be realistic about this:

Humanity has suffered disasters, worse than global warming.....most notably Toba, the effects of which killed all but tens of thousands of our ancestors in perhaps less than half a decade, or thereabouts. Hell, life, period, has gone thru disasters worse than what global warming has been or will ever be: even the K/T event wasn't enough to kill all life on Earth, and it was far worse than the Permian event. We won't even come close to the latter.....but then again, that may not be such a good thing.
Even with drastic carbon cuts in this century, we could still reach around 4*C(perhaps 6-7*C if business as usual continues.) if the absolute worst of the plausible worst-case scenarios do pan out(which they may not.). We have reached just under 1*C and some species are already having a hard time(though deforestation, mountaintop removal, etc. has made the damage far worse in many regions), and the weather is already screwing up. Things sadly will get worse before they get better.

And what doesn't help, are those few but extremely vocal self-satisfied whiners and do-nothings like John Atcheson, Guy McPherson, etc.(and the somewhat naive, though usually well-meaning folks who happen to agree with them for whatever reason), who keep baying on and on about this Armageddon nonsense, how humanity will go extinct and Earth will turn into Venus, which is every bit as unproductive as the propaganda of lying, self-deluded, etc. deniers like Watts Up With That, Chris Monckton, etc.(and the crooks who enable them, i.e. the Koch Bros.), claiming that global warming is a New World Order hoax, etc.; all it does is help turn the public off(as if Big Energy agitprop wasn't bad enough!) and it makes the jobs of people like Peter Sinclair, and the folks over at Skeptical Science that much harder.

And frankly, I'm a little disappointed in Common Dreams for publishing this poorly written piece(albeit with a few occasional good points, it may be granted) of pop literature, mainly because they've done so good in the past. I really do hope this isn't the start of a trend.

Hey, I'm sorry, but I've had my fill of Revelations-type crap for the week. Okay? And I'm not alone, either.