At this moment, Typhoon Haiyan is tearing through the Philippines. Bearing wind gusts up to 235 mph, it is the strongest storm to make landfall in recorded history. Last December, another category 5 "Super Typhoon" named Bopha, hit the islands claiming some 1900 lives. The year before that yet another storm hit, claiming another 1300.
How long do we have to wait? What level of destruction is enough, before we admit that it is happening?
We are in the era of the Super Storm.
Over and over, from Katrina to Sandy to Haiyan, we see these storms come. Scientists, rightly so, refuse to claim categorically that global warming is to blame. That is because that is how science works, but all save a few wingbats admit that warming is almost certainly the cause.
Those on the right use the inherent uncertainty in the scientific process to say that the issue is undecided, but they...are...wrong. The issue IS decided.
"Overwhelming consensus."
That is the phrase used by 98% of climate scientists. If you lift your nose at that, then you are living in a dream world while the rest of us have to deal with the nightmare.
The carbon that we have already put into the atmosphere will persist there for at least another 100 years, so we will be dealing with the effects no matter what we do, but for the sake of our grandchildren and great grandchildren we have to act NOW.
Otherwise, the nightmares of today will be fond memories for the generations to come.
Here is a problem you have not touched on. While we as a species CAN get greener, most of us won't. China, being a far worse offender than the U.S. And all of that knowing, doesn't fix the here and now. a 200 MPH typhoon is bearing down on the Philippines. Knowing that climate change is largely responsible for it doesn't mean squat to the people there.
ReplyDeleteIt is time the world got better organised to better deal with issues in the now as well as the future. Until we do, all climate change really is, is a political talking point
We claim to be the leaders of the world. If we wait for others to act first, that belies that assumption. We will never get others to do what is needed if we aren't willing to do so first.
ReplyDeleteThe point of the "Now" is to get to the future. If we don't act now, then, for a great many people, there won't BE a future.