A place for Liam to post essays, comments, diatribes and rants on life in general.

Those fond of Liam's humor essays, they have been moved here.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Is it getting hot in here?

This story needs to be read.

Not long ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued some projections on the effects of global warming on the arctic polar ice cap. They issued several projections for when that ice cap would be completely melted, and the most aggressive of these projections called for the cap to be gone by 2050.

2050 is somewhat dire, but let's face it, it's easy to ignore. Most people my age and older will be dead by then. Those who are still alive will be octogenarians or older. Not that this is any excuse to ignore a problem which will affect our children (my youngest will be just about my age in 2050), but still, 43 years is a long time.

According to a new study and new measurements just published, the arctic cap is disappearing at a far greater rate than even the most aggressive projection of the IPCC, and based on those measurements, arctic ice will be entirely gone by 2020. 13 years from now. The vast majority of people my age will live to see that, being only in our mid 50s. The odds are not insignificant that my parents or my wife's will be alive to see it happen. My oldest child will only be twice his current age.

This terrifies me. Worse than the war on terror, worse than ill conceived wars in middle east nations, worse than the fact that we've got what appear to be a moron and a psychopath running the country. Because we're not taking it seriously. In the face of all evidence, we're not taking it seriously. Just how bad do things have to get before we take it seriously?

When the "worst case scenario" estimates start seeming conservative compared to reality, shouldn't we be doing something about this TODAY?

Maybe it's just the after-midnight, everything-seems-more-dire circumstance making me so alarmed, but really, it seems as though by now we should have gotten well past the "science is still out on whether it's happening" phase and moved on to the "what can we do to mitigate this disaster". We put so many resources into fighting a war on terror, when terrorists on their best days couldn't take out as many people as are projected to die if global temperatures rise by just a few average degrees.

Just some dire, insomnia fueled thoughts for this night.

 

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