( – promoted by buhdydharma )
WASHINGTON-According to a report released this week by the Center for Global Development, climate change, the popular mid-2000s issue that raised awareness of the fact that the earth’s continuous rise in temperature will have catastrophic ecological effects, has apparently not been resolved, and may still be a problem.
While several years have passed since global warming was considered the most pressing issue facing mankind, recent studies from the Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Academy of Sciences, NASA, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and basically any scientific report available on the issue confirmed that it is not only still happening, but might also be worth stopping.
“Global warming, if you remember correctly, was the single greatest problem of our lifetime back in 2007 and the early part of 2008,” CGD president Nancy Birdsall said. “But then the debates over Social Security reform and the World Trade Center mosque came up, and the government had to shift its focus away from the dramatic rise in sea levels, the rapid spread of deadly infectious diseases, and the imminent destruction of our entire planet.”
Continued Birdsall, “Because the problem of global warming and massive environmental devastation appears to be lingering, however, the time may be right for the federal government to consider dealing with it again in some way.”
According to the 300-page document, though global warming-and the worldwide homelessness and drought associated with it-was a desperate problem immediately following the release of the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, China’s undervalued currency, the midterm elections, and gay marriage have since monopolized lawmakers’ time. It concludes that the likelihood of any of these matters flooding the entire Eastern Seaboard and leaving the state of Florida completely submerged is “very slim.”
The report further suggests global warming might be worth reversing, especially if mankind wants to avoid the unprecedented food shortage that an overwhelming majority of scientists and agricultural experts predict will happen within 85 years if global warming is not reversed.
“I was a bit surprised by our findings, because I, along with the rest of my colleagues, thought that the process of fixing climate change ended soon after [2007 rock concert] Live Earth,” CGD assistant director George Oliver told reporters. “But it turns out that the things needed to stop it, like substantive energy legislation, worldwide cooperation to reduce carbon emissions, and a massive cultural shift toward sustainable living actually didn’t happen at all.”
“We kind of just assumed that the threat of total annihilation spurred everyone into action back in ’07 and that everything got better,” Oliver added.
Read it all here – it’s enough to make you cry…
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If you wish to skip her intro (not recommended) the song begins at 5’30” or so.
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the best commentary on climate change comes from The Onion….
Great line from Van Morrison and a tour name for his group. Van was referring to having ingested a certain substance that “it was too late to stop now.” I know the feeling all too well. It used to signal a great time. ;-);-);-)
Unfortunately, the media-government-corporate-oligarchy has swallowed the Kool-Aid and it seems to be Total Denial and not Owsley. We’re fucked. There could be an asteroid due to collide with Earth next January and they’d bury it in the obits for fear of ruining the Holiday shopping season.
I’m opting for adaptation. I have a half acre of glacial loess that’s almost pure sand with a few inches of Cape Cod topsoil (a myth). I’ve been composting for decades and it’s now about ten inches of very rich, aerated, earthworm heaven.
I’m following the path of Elliot Coleman up in Maine (zone 5) where he uses passive solar year round to grow veggies. It’s not all that hard. If you’re handy and have even a small bit of land it’s fairly straightforward DIY stuff.
There’s a lot you can do – compost, make compost tea for fertilizing, can, dry, store crops, collect rainwater, recycle grey water. Indoor growing is getting ridiculously inexpensive. CFLs, fluorescents at 5000-65000K, simple bubbleponic aquarium+PVC setups. All DIY.
I’m not waiting on government or anyone else to solve my problem. I’m just dealing with it to the best of my ability. The more I learn from trial and error, the more I can pass on.
I think the solution begins with you, your family and your friends. And we get the benefit of blogs and forums on the net to spread techniques and solutions.
If you want to wait on the government or industry or the media or some outside force to solve this problem, well, that’s your business. You can type your fingertips off and the mountains won’t move.
You can use your hands and move some dirt and plants and start learning what the hunter-gatherers had to learn a long time ago. Grow your own – whatever and wherever possible.
Oh. One more thing. Be sure to live on top of the best aquifer you can afford. The American Sahara is just beginning. I recommend New England for the northern and southern jet stream confluences.
Eventually all those problems will fade away.
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— More, at RawStory, November 11th, 2010