Fiddling While the Earth Burns

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

by John M. Crisp

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0416-22.htm

<snip>

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — My friend, the entomologist, makes his living de-bugging the vast cotton fields of South Texas. Maybe not this year, though. Drought is jeopardizing the cotton crop, as well as the livelihoods of everyone connected to it. If rain doesn't come soon, there'll be little cotton, if any.

Drought in South Texas isn't unusual, but lately the weather has been peculiar in other ways. I grew up in Victoria, in the heart of the Texas Gulf Coast. It snowed there on February 12, 1958, and again, coincidentally, on February 12, 1960, a total accumulation of perhaps 3 inches. School ended early. And that was it for snow. But on Christmas Day, 2004, Victoria received a full 12 inches of snow, the first and only big snowfall since 1897. Peculiar.

Other things have changed, as well. This is hurricane country. Once hurricane season starts in June, most people maintain a wary watch on the tropics all summer and then breathe a grateful sigh of relief when the Gulf water begins to cool in October or November.

I detect more anxiety than usual this year. Last season exhausted the National Weather Service's annual list of hurricane names and went deep into the Greek alphabet before the last storm, Epsilon. Katrina was bad, but Rita hit closer to home, sidling past Corpus Christi, provoking several days of boarding-up and evacuations, before turning north and sparking a tense, bottle-necked exodus from the Houston area. Many of us know someone who was trapped on the road for a day and a night in the vast caravan fleeing Rita...

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[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. What happens when the climate really begins to change?

We're already seeing die-offs of certain species. The weather is strange world-wide. With the polar ice caps melting, how long before the Gulf Stream shuts down, sending Europe into another Ice Age? And what will the politicians do about it? Probably nothing.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. If it happens as suddenly as some...

...experts think, we'll see massive population crashes among many many species, and humans will NOT be exempt.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Oh yeah

I wouldn't be surprised if by, say, 2012, the human population on this planet had shrunk quite a bit.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

5. It's not difficult to envision mass depopulation as...

...part of the PNAC plan. Fits with the way they think. Too many people, too few dwindling, finite resources...how might we reasonably expect the fine, upstanding folks at PNAC to approach such a problem?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. With gated communities and guards around their houses

I don't think they've thought it all out, though-because there could very well come a time when the guards turn on them, and their gated communities become a prison where they are forced to fend for themselves. Since many have no survival skills beyond paying someone to do their work for them, their lives may very well take and interesting and perilous turn.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

7. You describe the scenario they most fear...

...and it makes them very dangerous.

[1620rock]

Yeah, and way up north here...

...warmest winter on record. Not one day below zero, and the ice fishing industry was ruined.

[johnnypneumatic]

4. humans never react to change, until after the point of no return

and death is staring them in the face, then it is every man for himself

[swatterdebattedelune]

8. char-coal production in south america

i'm much more concerned about 3rd and 2nd world growth, or lack of on co2. our dirty growth, the industrial age, is essentially over, yet the focus should be on these other regions to ensure they grow their economies cleanly. lastly, the char-coal production in brazil destroys vast swathes of rain forest and produces stunningly high level of co2 and particulate matter.