Reading through New Scientist today, UK’s hottest day on record sees temperatures pass 40°C | New Scientist, I was struck by their comments that we are now at 1.5 degrees C experiencing this kind of interruption to society in the U.K. Canada and the U.S. but we are expecting 3.5 degrees by the end of this century.
Think that through. We are experiencing this kind of heat in the northern hemisphere at only 1/3rd of the way to where scientists predict we are going. At the same time, none of the 40 countries that met in Berlin last week for the annual climate change talks did anything of substance to help low-income countries. We are failing on all accounts. The vast majority of people simply refuse to believe it until they are washed away, living in an inferno or finding their forests burning. We are *in* climate change. There is no going back.
If you have anything you can do, it’s to take this issue to our elected or soon to be elected officials. They need to hear that it’s unacceptable to do nothing or blame others in the face of this slow moving disaster.
It’s up to you now. The politicians are refusing to save us. The Republicans just want to return to a past that included burning rivers of pollution, fogging children with DDT and more. The born again Christians seem to simply be interested in abortion or believe we are in end times and are simply waiting for salvation rather than helping come up with solutions. We are truly untethered as society and needing leadership that will only come from people not yet on the stage. The future is not going to be like the past, but with work it might be better than we think. Step up now.
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula |
I have the terrible feeling that this rise in heat will occur exponentially. Where will that put us in 30 years ? We are really going to burn up and suffer if we don’t work on solutions to temper the process.