The Time to Act is Now
This week, the option of ignoring global warming was officially relegated to the dustbin of history. First the Supreme Court, and today the international scientific community, said that global warming is a reality impacting our lives today and must be dealt with.
The state of play on global warming is perfectly summed up by the dramatic confrontation between scientists and political apparatchiks late last night over the latest IPCC report. The politicians pushed through slightly wishy-washy language and U.S. delegates rejected suggested wording that parts of North America may suffer ’severe economic damage’ from warming. But it was the most Pyrrhic of victories - because it was entirely overwhelmed by the larger document that, in dry scientific language, depicts the end of life as we know it. The reality of droughts, water shortages, starvation and flooding facing hundreds of millions of people this century cannot be denied by spin.
Much has been made of the report findings that global warming will hit poor countries the most. But make no mistake, the developed world isn’t spared - and we have more to lose. One especially ominous warning from the report:
It is very likely that globally aggregated figures underestimate the damage costs because they cannot include many non-quantifiable impacts. Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.
Today the international scientific community said that we’re already feeling the impacts of global warming - which is a scary enough headline, but you ain’t seen nothing yet. It is crystal clear that we’re on a path to Planetary Purgatory, with a fate of Hell and High Water unless we change course immediately.
April 7th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
In part inspired by sites like Climate Progress, but mostly by having children and grandchildren who will have to deal with ever more serious consequences of CC, I’m writing a blog whose sole purpose is to point to evidence of people taking concrete action to adapt to CC impact, preferably in advance of that impact.
We, the affluent, have the advantage of knowledge and available funding to adapt. Millions - or billions - of others will be caught unprepared and forced to suffer and/or migrate. We must build life preservers for them, too. I live on an estuary to the San Francisco Bay. Our home is about 30 feet above sea level. Nearby is the tony little town of Sausalito, its downtown just a few feet above sea level. The wealthy, too, are vulnerable. We just got back from New Orleans. People need to be reminded what devastation is like, even in the USA.