this ain't good
Nov. 23rd, 2005 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonThe Big Thaw (blurb: Global disaster will follow if the ice cap on Greenland melts. Now scientists say it is vanishing far faster than even they expected.)
A bit sensationalist, if understandably so. Global disaster? Debatable. Coastal disaster? Oh yes. And for the U.K. and NW Europe, very very very cold times ahead if the Gulf Stream is disrupted, possibly also affecting the U.S. and Canada severely as well. And as one more among a long chain of similar reports, it is further proof that our actions as human beings are changing this planet far quicker even than predicted. If you're inclined to mathematics, note that in a complex, chaotic system, adding energy (ex: waste heat, greenhouse gases, etc) to that system tends to cause it to act in unpredictable ways, most typically making the system even more chaotic, with wider extremes and more violent changes. If you're more of a mystical bent, think of the earth and climate changes as Mother Nature's immune system response. Either way it will get less and less hospitable on this planet for us, until we either start intentionally lowering our collective impact, or until we are no longer capable of making significant impacts. When will it start? It's already happening, but so far, we can ignore it if we put a lot of energy into not seeing what's right in front of our faces. That ignorance will become less and less possible over time.
The only possible rationalization I can understand for the U.S. government's continued willful obstruction of climate change legislation in the face of overwhelming evidence, other than complete and total boneheaded stupidity, is "James Watt Syndrome," after former President Reagan's Secretary of the Interior Department, whose stated position on preservation of natural resources (which he was in charge of) was that we might as well use them all up as quickly as possible, before the Second Coming of Jesus, which is coming any minute now. That was a simpler, more innocent time, when neocon-appointed public officials still said these kinds of things out in public, where they could shock all of the relatively sane people into some kind of action. Twenty years of five fundamentalist presidential administrations in the U.S. have taught all but the most resolutely idiotic or dogmatic neocon officials to keep these kinds of proclamations to themselves, behind closed doors, presumably during prayer meetings and such, and present a blandly innocuous face to the world. But they're still acting, and legislating, as if Jesus is about to come down any minute now, to save us all from the natural consequences of our own actions. Even in the extremely unlikely event that was true (guys, you've been told "any minute now" for almost 2000 years...), if you were a landlord coming to check out your tenants, wouldn't you hope to find that they'd taken good care of the place you'd made them stewards of, and wouldn't you be really, really pissed if they'd trashed the place?
Oi. At times, it's really hard to hope. But as one of my friends and mentors is inclined to say, despair is no longer a luxury we can afford ourselves. If anything is going to change, if we want to have any hope of not spiraling down all the way to the bottom, we all have work to do. Now. Our hands, bodies, hearts, heads and souls are all needed, every one of us. Right now. Look into your heart. You'll know what you need to do.
A bit sensationalist, if understandably so. Global disaster? Debatable. Coastal disaster? Oh yes. And for the U.K. and NW Europe, very very very cold times ahead if the Gulf Stream is disrupted, possibly also affecting the U.S. and Canada severely as well. And as one more among a long chain of similar reports, it is further proof that our actions as human beings are changing this planet far quicker even than predicted. If you're inclined to mathematics, note that in a complex, chaotic system, adding energy (ex: waste heat, greenhouse gases, etc) to that system tends to cause it to act in unpredictable ways, most typically making the system even more chaotic, with wider extremes and more violent changes. If you're more of a mystical bent, think of the earth and climate changes as Mother Nature's immune system response. Either way it will get less and less hospitable on this planet for us, until we either start intentionally lowering our collective impact, or until we are no longer capable of making significant impacts. When will it start? It's already happening, but so far, we can ignore it if we put a lot of energy into not seeing what's right in front of our faces. That ignorance will become less and less possible over time.
The only possible rationalization I can understand for the U.S. government's continued willful obstruction of climate change legislation in the face of overwhelming evidence, other than complete and total boneheaded stupidity, is "James Watt Syndrome," after former President Reagan's Secretary of the Interior Department, whose stated position on preservation of natural resources (which he was in charge of) was that we might as well use them all up as quickly as possible, before the Second Coming of Jesus, which is coming any minute now. That was a simpler, more innocent time, when neocon-appointed public officials still said these kinds of things out in public, where they could shock all of the relatively sane people into some kind of action. Twenty years of five fundamentalist presidential administrations in the U.S. have taught all but the most resolutely idiotic or dogmatic neocon officials to keep these kinds of proclamations to themselves, behind closed doors, presumably during prayer meetings and such, and present a blandly innocuous face to the world. But they're still acting, and legislating, as if Jesus is about to come down any minute now, to save us all from the natural consequences of our own actions. Even in the extremely unlikely event that was true (guys, you've been told "any minute now" for almost 2000 years...), if you were a landlord coming to check out your tenants, wouldn't you hope to find that they'd taken good care of the place you'd made them stewards of, and wouldn't you be really, really pissed if they'd trashed the place?
Oi. At times, it's really hard to hope. But as one of my friends and mentors is inclined to say, despair is no longer a luxury we can afford ourselves. If anything is going to change, if we want to have any hope of not spiraling down all the way to the bottom, we all have work to do. Now. Our hands, bodies, hearts, heads and souls are all needed, every one of us. Right now. Look into your heart. You'll know what you need to do.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-23 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-23 08:01 pm (UTC)Nice icon, BTW.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 12:40 am (UTC)http://beprepared.com/
poor marketing
Date: 2005-11-24 06:19 pm (UTC)Both the long time farmers in our valley who have lived/worked here for 50-60 years (and whose families have been here generations) have commented on the increasing weirdness of the weather. Last year we had 2 50-year storms.
Stephen in NZ