While Bush blathered on disingenuously at the United Nations about his fantasy of American style democracy in the Middle East there is one problem the winning candidate of the 2000 American election talked about yesterday at the New York University School of Law that will be ignored at our peril ... really:
A few days ago, scientists announced alarming new evidence of the rapid melting of the perennial ice of the north polar cap, continuing a trend of the past several years that now confronts us with the prospect that human activities, if unchecked in the next decade, could destroy one of the earth's principle mechanisms for cooling itself. Another group of scientists presented evidence that human activities are responsible for the dramatic warming of sea surface temperatures in the areas of the ocean where hurricanes form. A few weeks earlier, new information from yet another team showed dramatic increases in the burning of forests throughout the American West, a trend that has increased decade by decade, as warmer temperatures have dried out soils and vegetation. All these findings come at the end of a summer with record breaking temperatures and the hottest twelve month period ever measured in the U.S., with persistent drought in vast areas of our country. Scientific American introduces the lead article in its special issue this month with the following sentence: "The debate on global warming is over."
Many scientists are now warning that we are moving closer to several "tipping points" that could - within as little as 10 years - make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet's habitability for human civilization. In this regard, just a few weeks ago, another group of scientists reported on the unexpectedly rapid increases in the release of carbon and methane emissions from frozen tundra in Siberia, now beginning to thaw because of human caused increases in global temperature. The scientists tell us that the tundra in danger of thawing contains an amount of additional global warming pollution that is equal to the total amount that is already in the earth's atmosphere. Similarly, earlier this year, yet another team of scientists reported that the previous twelve months saw 32 glacial earthquakes on Greenland between 4.6 and 5.1 on the Richter scale - a disturbing sign that a massive destabilization may now be underway deep within the second largest accumulation of ice on the planet, enough ice to raise sea level 20 feet worldwide if it broke up and slipped into the sea. Each passing day brings yet more evidence that we are now facing a planetary emergency - a climate crisis that demands immediate action to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions worldwide in order to turn down the earth's thermostat and avert catastrophe
Read the whole thing. I really mean that this time. At least Gore approaches the subject with some attempt at a solution.
There is simply no threat that is even remotely close to the one the environment poses. To those blind ignorant fools who claim that Gore and Professor James Lovelock (see below) are Cassandras, I fear for once they may be right (though of course they would hardly realize it).
In Greek mythology, Cassandra ("she who entangles men") (also known as Alexandra) was a daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy whose beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy. However, when she did not return his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions...
When Cassandra foresees the destruction of Troy (she warns the Trojans about the Trojan Horse, the death of Agamemnon, and her own demise), she is unable to do anything to forestall these events. Her family believes she is mad, and, according to some versions, kept her locked up because of this.
At times I am absolutely dumbfounded by the magnitude of the stupidity of our species. Look at Lovelock's conclusions (via Billmon):
Within the next decade or two, Lovelock forecasts, Gaia will hike her thermostat by at least 10 degrees. Earth, he predicts, will be hotter than at any time since the Eocene Age 55 million years ago, when crocodiles swam in the Arctic Ocean.
"There's no realization of how quickly and irreversibly the planet is changing," Lovelock says. "Maybe 200 million people will migrate close to the Arctic and survive this. Even if we took extraordinary steps, it would take the world 1,000 years to recover."
And as Billmon notes, Lovelock is hardly a quack:
It would be easy to view this as just another kooky end-of-the-world theory, if it weren't for the history of some of Lovelock's other kooky theories -- like the time in the late '70s when he hypothesized that chlorofluorocarbons wafted high into the stratosphere would eat great big holes in the ozone layer, exposing first the polar regions and then the rest of the earth's surface to increasingly harmful ultraviolet radiation. What a nut.
We are really at critical - beyond critical - stage of human history and at the helm of the world's most powerful (and ignorant) nation is a man-child surrounded by corrupt, incompetent, greedy goons.
Billions of dollars are spent on bombing people, and in the process making the world far more dangerous. And one of the many reasons for this is oil, the resource whose burning is crippling our planet. It seems to me a sane species would be focusing all its resources and energy on finding ways to survive what is clearly the most devastating threat imaginable instead of blowing what it has in a battle for the commodity that only makes the problem worse. Do people not realize that this is something that we can not afford to wait on? And to those who doubt the overwhelming scientific consensus; Is this something you can afford to be wrong about? Do you have any children?
Be afraid. Be very very afraid. It's our only hope.
Update: Senator Inhofe:
He's (Gore) been hyping unfounded fears of planetary doom for 20 years
To Senator James M. Inofe, Republican from Oklahoma, I say; Go to hell. Go straight to hell.
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