Climate Change Laid to Humans, 'No Doubt' Industry is Primary Cause

[G_j]

There have been a lot of stories about Global Warming in the last few days, and I've been posting some of them here. Here is another:


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1204-04.htm

Published on Thursday, December 4, 2003 by the San Francisco Chronicle
Climate Change Laid to Humans
Report Warns There's 'No Doubt' Industry is Primary Cause

by David Perlman

New evidence found by teams of climate researchers leaves no doubt that industrial emissions of greenhouse gases are responsible for increasing global temperatures -- an ominous trend that has speeded up in the past 50 years and threatens to continue for centuries, according to a report by two of the nation's leading atmospheric scientists.

The two government experts said climate change "may prove to be humanity's greatest challenge" and warned that "it is very unlikely to be adequately addressed without greatly improved international cooperation and action."Thomas Karl, a meteorologist at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., and Kevin Trenberth, chief of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., are publishing their analysis in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

Thomas Karl, a meteorologist at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., and Kevin Trenberth, chief of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., are publishing their analysis in Friday's edition of the journal Science.


Neither scientist criticized the Bush administration's refusal to ratify the Kyoto treaty, which is designed to regulate emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases worldwide. But their published comments reflected the growing concerns of most climate experts over the White House stance
...more..

[ewagner]

1. We have a meteorologist

in the family. (Well, at least he's a college Senior meteorologist)He was home for thanksgiving and we talked about global warming over the dinner table. He said that the top researchers in the field were willing to say that humans were, in fact, altering the atmosphere but they weren't willing to commit to humans being the sole cause of global warming. In the interest of being academically honest, the researchers my son talked about said that there were some signs that there are/were global warming/cooling cycles and they cannot tell with 100% accuracy if all the global warming was due to humans or if only some of it was due to human intervention. In other words, they don't know if the warming/cooling cycles are real, or whether they are responsible for some part of the warming.

The information you posted is pretty new stuff as far as I can tell.

He's going to the AMS National Convention in January in Seattle, I suspect there will be forums and workshops on the papers you mentioned.

[IrateCitizen]

2. I'll raise you one further, G_j

This is something I posted on another thread, but it applies here....

One of the books that opened my eyes to this reality was The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki. Western civilization has conditioned us to believe that the environment is somehow something separate from ourselves -- and therefore, little more than a resource to be exploited and controlled. However, the true reality is that we are wholly dependent on the environment for our very survival. We depend on its air, water and soil -- not to mention countless other organisms that share the planet with us -- for our very lives.

Furthermore, the planet is a complex ecosystem in which everything is dependent on everything else. Think of it as an intricate spider's web. If you break some strands here and there, the web will still stand. But tear enough strands, and sooner or later, a large part of it will collapse. Keep on tearing them, and the whole thing will fall in on itself.

Right now, we are precipitating the largest mass extinction of species that the planet has seen since the end of the age of the dinosaurs (cited from the book Affluenza by DeGraff, et.al.) and at the same time acting as if everything is fine. We have destroyed over half of the original forests on the earth, with some of the most valuable ecosystems (South American and Indonesian rainforests, for example) disappearing at incredibly rapid rates. We are currently consuming 33% more resources than the earth can replenish on a yearly basis (chief among these being arable soil and clean water supplies), and if every nation on earth adopted the same "standard of living" as the US, the figure would jump to five times as much.

Many prominent international groups of scientists estimate that we have, at most, two generations to fix things before we begin to suffer MAJOR environmental catastrophe. That's two generations MAX -- it may be less than that. Those major environmental catastrophes will mean the end of civilization as we know it, there's no other way of realistically looking at it.

Scared yet? If not, you should be -- because we are currently doing NOTHING to adequately address these issues, instead trying to squeeze a few last drops of blood out of the turnip before it crumbles in our hands.

[G_j]

3. a web

is a good analogy IC. It also works I think for seeing solutions. I'm hoping we can find and support 'leaders' who see and address the web of connections: oil, war, the environment, PNAC, 'empire' global justice, fair trade, racism, greed, stolen elections, militarism, the prison industrial complex on and on. It is all connected. We have very few politicians courageous enough to acknowledge the larger connections. It would mean having to make a lot of serious changes and sacrifices, not the usual political fare.

great post, :toast:

[IrateCitizen]

4. And therein lies the Catch-22

It would mean having to make a lot of serious changes and sacrifices, not the usual political fare.

And when, outside of WWII, was the last time that people willingly voted, en masse, for someone who told them up front that they would all have to "make sacrifices"?

I can't think of any. :shrug: Perhaps we truly are doomed.

[G_j]

5. true

though JFK did say "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for country" he was silenced.

Now, I guess we are so far down the road of selfishess and denial that a politician telling folks we need to give up even a few things has little chance of getting off the ground. They certainly wouldn't be getting corporate donations.

maybe catastrophie, environmental and otherwise, is the only road we have left ourselves...



:shrug:

[Karmadillo]

6. Thanks for the post.

Suzuki's book sounds like a worthwhile read. I wish I could believe we're going to be able to make the changes necessary to deal with the disaster we're creating, but I kind of think we're going to come up short. All of this makes me think Morris Berman had it pretty much right in The Twilight of American Culture.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039332169X/ref=pd_sim_books_4/103-0971689-2781419?v=glance&s=books

Amazon.com
"If you have finally had it with CNN and Hollywood and John Grisham and New Age 'spirituality,' then pull up a chair, unplug your phone (beeper, TV, fax machine, computer, etc.), and give me a few hours of your time. I promise to do my best not to entertain you."

A slightly forbidding introduction to a book, but indicative of its author's disgust at the homogenized McWorld in which we live, and an enticing challenge to read on. As the title The Twilight of American Culture suggests, Morris Berman's outlook is somewhat bleak. Analogizing the contemporary United States to the late Roman Empire, Berman sees a nation fat on useless consumption, saturated with corporate ideology, and politically, psychically, and culturally dulled. But he believes that this behemoth--what Thomas Frank called the "multinational entertainment oligopoly"--must buckle under its own weight. His hope for a brighter tomorrow lies in a modern monastic movement, in which keepers of the enlightenment flame resist the constant barrage of "spin and hype." Ironically, despite his disdain for "the fashionable patois of postmodernism," he approvingly quotes poststructuralist theorist Jean-François Lyotard's maxim "elitism for everybody" in describing this cadre of idiosyncratic, literate devotees, these new monks.

Berman is plainspoken and occasionally caustic. The Twilight of American Culture is an informed and thought-provoking book, a wake-up call to a nation whose powerful minority has become increasingly self-satisfied as their stock options ripen, while an underclass that vastly outnumbers the e-generation withers on the vine and cannot locate itself on any map. It is a quick and savage read that aims to get your eyes off this computer, your nose out of that self-help book, and send you back to thought and action. --J.R. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

[opihimoimoi]

7. I too am a concerned citizen but it seems not enough are very interested

much less worried about this. In fact, it appears most could give a rats ass.

Its the ostrich syndrome I suppose, you know, head in the sand thing.

It seems Humanity insists on going about the future without a game plan. Nada. Therefore we risk dire consequences but no one seems to notice.

Oh well,

Come, we drink Kawa

[IrateCitizen]

8. Hmmm... interesting.... Regarding the "monastic culture"

I can't really find much in Berman's outlook to disagree with, from what you've posted.

Analogizing the contemporary United States to the late Roman Empire, Berman sees a nation fat on useless consumption, saturated with corporate ideology, and politically, psychically, and culturally dulled.

No argument here. That's exactly what I see when I look around. I also live in one of the affluence/consumerist capitals of the Western world -- Westchester County, NY.

But he believes that this behemoth--what Thomas Frank called the "multinational entertainment oligopoly"--must buckle under its own weight. His hope for a brighter tomorrow lies in a modern monastic movement, in which keepers of the enlightenment flame resist the constant barrage of "spin and hype."

It's already happening, and I've been working to join in. Ever hear of the "living simplicity" movement? You can find a lot of details about it at http://www.simpleliving.net. I found it through the book Affluenza, a follow-up to a 2-part series on PBS about 5 years back. There are people everywhere, in the midst of this mindless consumerism, coming to the realization that our culture of crass materialism is actually devoid of spiritual or personal fulfillment -- and they are joining up in small groups to drop out of it as much as possible. It's not easy, because our society is actually built in a way to make this exceedingly difficult -- but people are coming together and doing it anyway. Our hope lies in these kinds of movements, for providing a basis of a better culture and society after the bottom inevitably drops out of this rotten one.