Global Warming Archives - Page 3 of 12

Treehugger posted a story saying that all is lost, using the sales stats of the Ford F series trucks as an argument…and am admittedly compelling one, as they sell one every 4.5 seconds! It just adds to a similar train of thought in my life lately though..how do we dig ourselves out of this pit we’ve created for ourselves…how do we transition to a sustainable society? The Global Footprint Network attempts to calculate the difference between how much natural resources we use, and how fast nature can replenish that. If you hadn’t figured it out already, that date falls on August 2nd this year, and has been getting worse every year (follow this link for more on that). We’re on a dead-end path here, robbing from future generations so we may live lives of luxury.

So what’s the solution? There’s is insufficient public willpower to effect change, sadly. Change of the magnitude needed will only happen if there is a sizable natural disaster of global proportions…otherwise these days will go down in history as the peak of this civilization and perhaps even of this species. If anyone is left to record this history, that is. This frustrates me…I feel we have the technology and the ability to change the course we’re on…but how to reach people, that’s the challenge…

Climate change is not something that will impact the old farts in Congress, which perhaps explain their inaction on the issue. It will, however, greatly affect today’s children. I’ve been watching an effort to use the American judicial system to force change on this issue, and while its original trial date of February 5th was delayed due to Trump tactics, that case is proceeding. It’s worth reading more about at ourchildrenstrust.org. From the website:

Their complaint asserts that, through the government’s affirmative actions that cause climate change, it has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.

The reason for this blog post though, is to raise awareness of a new initiative, this one targeting the government of Washington state. Their approach is similar, arguing that the state’s actions,

…severely endangers plaintiffs and their ability to grow to adulthood safely and enjoy the rights, benefits, and privileges of past generations of Washingtonians due to the resulting climate change.

It’s hard to argue with this line of reason. Well unless you’re a climate change denier of course! Read more here.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, President Trump has announced his decision to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. It’s not clear exactly when this can happen…if it’ll actually take the years that some people say (he said he’ll stick to the withdrawal process laid out in the agreement, which could take up to four years, but do you really believe what he says?). He says he wants to ‘renegotiate’ the agreement, something that the leaders of France, Germany, and Italy said was not possible (in a joint statement today). It doesn’t matter though…it sends a message to the world that the US will no longer be a global leader. Other countries will rise up to take that place and will prosper from that.

The NYTimes article linked to above is a good source for more information, as is this article at Wired.

2016 officially came in as the hottest year in recorded history for this planet (as previously reported here, it was the second warmest if looking only at the US). Both NASA and NOAA independently came to this same
conclusion, using data from over six thousand weather stations around the world.

Care to guess what year is #2 in the list? Yep, 2015. And you guessed it, #3 is 2014. Even a Republican can’t deny this trend. Ok, well that’s not true, they’re expert climate change deniers, they’ll deny anything for personal gain. And we *can* expect 2017 to be cooler than 2016 due to the waning El Nino. So it’s up to the rest of us to call them out on their bullshit and not let them fuck up this planet any more.

Here are some external links if you’d like to read more about this:

Climatecrocks.com

Newatlas

Engadget

Unless you’re ignoring the science, the Earth continues to exhibit signs of global warming. 2016 came in as the second hottest year (behind 2012) on record for the US. With El Niño expected to fade in 2017, things should cool off a little this year but the upwards trend continues. As for the ice in the oceans, global sea ice levels have never been as low as they are currently. Troubling signs overall, and with climate change deniers poised to take control of the US, attempts to avert this impending disaster are not likely to succeed. 🙁

Category: Global Warming

How do we dig our way out of this one?

Kids fighting to protect the climate for their future

Trump pulls US out of Paris agreement

2016 was the warmest year on record

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