Tyndall Center Director Anderson: Rapid Emissions Reduction Hard: 4-6C Far, Far Worse

[GliderGuider]

43. How do you know?

You say, "One thing we can be grateful for is that that won't be the case for AGW." Since the next 40 years are going to see the collision of a lot of human-caused calamities of which AGW is just one, how do you know we'll be able to rebuild faster than we did after Toba? You don't. You have made a statement of personal faith.

We are facing the possibility that the planet will lose its ability to produce food in significant quantities. The oil is pretty much gone. The minerals are mined out. The oceans are turning acidic. The weather is becoming progressively more inhospitable. We are losing the global economy.

In the face if this reality, the dream of rebuilding civilization like a Six Million Dollar Man - "Better ... stronger ... faster" - faces a hurdle or two. I have no problem if people still want to try and leap the hurdles, but minimizing their size and number doesn't help anything as far as I can see. There may be other things some people want to do, and having you talk them into your dream is at least as bad as them trying to talk you out of it.