Every state has a public university with scientists. Why aren’t they in mass having an affect on the journalists in the states to have more articles on global warming.

A place to start might be if some newspapers carried this websites articles in a regular column. I’d be better than the stuff I read in my states papers now.

Basically, people’s actions are driven by the lymbic- our primitive lizard brain; so even in the presence of a rationally-based consensus, we are not likely to get action until we experience a visceral and palpable threat from global warming.

Perhaps our challenge, then, is to figure out how to appeal to this lymbic brain which holds reason hostage to fear.

[JR: Everything you cite is actually more of an argument for the analogy between the two. Obviously Washington didn’t act in a timely fashion on the financial crisis. Obviously Washington hasn’t acted in a timely fashion on global warming — ten years ago was really the time to get serious. Same with the lack of international coordination, except this time it is in reverse. We acted, but Europe didn’t. And I never said this bailout was an example of systemic success. But in fact that is yet another analogy to climate change, since I have no doubt that whatever Congress passes on climate in the next two years won’t be the final climate bailout. No analogies are perfect, and a central argument of this blog is that climate change is a unique challenge, the greatest challenge humanity faces. But I still maintain there are lessons to be learned from the areas that are analogous. And I hope I haven’t left the wrong impression: I certainly agree that “It is an example of how public policy decisions get pushed off the table until they blow up” — where the heck do you think we are on climate?]

We already lost 1/3 of coral reefs worldwide, and that barely made headlines.

There is one alternative. If I remember well (I was very young then :), once upon a time the US had a president who “for no good reason” decided to get a man on the moon, and less than a decade later, you had your man (even men) on the moon. At a much smaller scale, the current president of France, when Minister of the Interior, decided that it was time to lower the number of people killed on french roads. In less than two years, and with almost no popular support, reduced that figure by about 50%. I don’t keep statistics, but I think almost everyone can tell similar tales about people who have a dream and want to share it with the world.

So all we need is statemanship (or should that now be “worldmanship”?). But that’s a resource that seems in very short supply these days.

Thunder and lightning won’t change what I’m feeling
And the daffodils looked lovely today…

The deniers are all out admiring the daffodils while N’Awlins drowns…

Serious people only talk about 350ppm. Please, Mr Romm, you have to take climate change serious. Our aim must be reducing atmospheric CO2 from current 384ppm to 350ppm. Anything less is a declaration of war against the planet.

[JR: I take it you don’t actually read this blog.]

thats pretty old news. It was dramatic just as Galveston was dramatic this year, but those events don’t stir up any “fight the climate” fervor. Not a bit.

You need a sudden major sea level rise everywhere. Anything short of that will be ignored. You need 20 major cities underwater at the same time.

A sudden meaningful political swing towards climate action is not coming in the mean time.

The problem now is that America is bust. There is no money left in the kitty. A major recession is on the books and probably depression. Being positive, this actually buys us some time and gives breathing room to address Climate Change issues.

There needs to be leadership and there needs to be direct action and there needs to be more panic from climate scientist and professionals.

(Why is it meteorologist don’t get Climate Change? I think there is a big time chip on their shoulders. If they were rooting for CC issues that would be a big help!)

Climate Change Direct Action Now!

When is it OK to start talking about the war-time footing cure for financial depression? We’ll have to build our way out of the hole. If we were being careful, we knew there would be money troubles from the double-whammy of bubble burst and critical commodity costs.

Same cure: ecological balance via targeted command economics and debt forgiveness.

I covered the financial mess/global warming/peak oil parallels over on The Cost of Energy just the other day: The flameout as foreshadowing.

With global temperatures having most recently peaked in 1998 (at least in the last half of the 20th century) and with many of the warmest years on record in the 1930’s (according to NASA, not me) when man-made carbon emissions were only beginning to be pumped into the atmosphere, I fail to see the significance of 450 PPM. Carbon levels continue to rise and global temperatures have fallen for the last decade - hardly a short and insignificant period of observation.

Give it up man. There was a drop in average temperate below the mean trend but the average global temperature continues to this year to rise.

That’s an old argument that has long since lost its credibility.

http://tamino.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/10yave.jpg

Do note that the global tempertures are now much warmer than in the 1930s.

Your graph cuts off at the year 2000. What’s the average so far for 2000-2008?