"A disturbing development in the march of global warming, revealed in science’s use of the English language.Not long ago, most climate scientists stuck to the future tense when they talked about the impacts of global warming. Now, they are using the present tense — and using it more and more often. Now, they tell us the damages have arrived in the United States.
In other words, climate change isn’t just a problem for our kids anymore. It’s here and now and getting personal.
What concerns climate scientists today is not only that the adverse impacts are showing up faster than they expected; it’s that political leaders are moving slower than they should. Climate scientists from around the world will meet next month in Copenhagen “to warn the world’s politicians they are being too timid in their response to global warming,” according to The Guardian...."
Via Climate Progress
What we need is climate revolution (I mean in the right direction) but it's understandably difficult for the ordinary person trying to make a living to give it attention. My fear is that the current recession/ depression will cause people who were beginning to change their lifestyles to go back again. (Organic food is more expensive etc.)
ReplyDeleteInteresting snippet about wind turbine power growth in China: http://bit.ly/2OHww. They are still in desperate environmental position, but this may be a sign of the right direction.
Isn't the global credit crisis causing some benefits to the environment with a slowing down of the destructiveness of mass consumption? There does seem to be an increase in grassroots activism regarding living simply and sustainably...it just needs to turn into a majority shift. It will be strange to be regarded as mainstream after so many years of being regarded as "alternative"...
ReplyDeleteHumour at times can help... the quote you have from Woody Allen regarding the world being at the crossroads of choosing between two possibilities, despair or total extinction etc...love it! Woody at his best, full of dread, anxiety and overwhelming pessimism. Either you laugh at this mess the world is in or you may cry for a long time.
oh, now the last post of Abbey...he doesn't look sinister to me. He looks like a wise, fiercely stubborn hobo or vagabond with his eyes saying he's not goin' change his ways for anyone!
ReplyDelete@ Bella:
ReplyDeleteYes! and Yes!
Your comment about the credit crisis and how it might/will affect the environment is dead-on.
And your comment about Abbey? I was thinking nearly the exact same thing yesterday.
: )
Tess,
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it is difficult to give and sustain attention to this...and the scenario, whether folks believe it or not, is bleak even if we do.... But it will be exponentially bleaker if we do not.... I do think the "fear" you raise is a valid concern. Thank you for the link about wind turbines in China. We need good news...and we must let the good news give us the hope and inspiration to do what we can...not allow it to lull us back to sleep....
Bella,
Ultimately I think the present economic mess might have an overall positive effect (remains to be seen), but it will take so much more than that....
Hey, I am glad somebody has noticed Woody and the others in my sidebar. :) Yes, Woody is full of dread, anxiety, and pessimism (as I am sometimes), and he laughs too.... The reason I put the quotation from Woody in my sidebar is the same reason that I put the quoation from Abbey about playfulness in the face of desperation in my last post about him.
Thank you both for the thoughtful and well spoken comments.
Val, you commented while I was wrting my reply to Tess and Bella.
ReplyDeleteYou are one of the most positive and hopeful people I know. We need you and more like you.