Are We Falling Off the Climate Precipice?: Scientists Consider Extinction

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:




Are We Falling Off the Climate Precipice?
Scientists Consider Extinction

By Dahr Jamail


I grew up planning for my future, wondering which college I would attend, what to study, and later on, where to work, which articles to write, what my next book might be, how to pay a mortgage, and which mountaineering trip I might like to take next.

Now, I wonder about the future of our planet. During a recent visit with my eight-year-old niece and 10- and 12-year-old nephews, I stopped myself from asking them what they wanted to do when they grew up, or any of the future-oriented questions I used to ask myself. I did so because the reality of their generation may be that questions like where they will work could be replaced by: Where will they get their fresh water? What food will be available? And what parts of their country and the rest of the world will still be habitable?

The reason, of course, is climate change -- and just how bad it might be came home to me in the summer of 2010. I was climbing Mount Rainier in Washington State, taking the same route I had used in a 1994 ascent. Instead of experiencing the metal tips of the crampons attached to my boots crunching into the ice of a glacier, I was aware that, at high altitudes, they were still scraping against exposed volcanic rock. In the pre-dawn night, sparks shot from my steps.

The route had changed dramatically enough to stun me. I paused at one point to glance down the steep cliffs at a glacier bathed in soft moonlight 100 meters below. It took my breath away when I realized that I was looking at what was left of the enormous glacier I’d climbed in 1994, the one that -- right at this spot -- had left those crampons crunching on ice. I stopped in my tracks, breathing the rarefied air of such altitudes, my mind working hard to grasp the climate-change-induced drama that had unfolded since I was last at that spot. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175785/tomgram%3A_dahr_jamail%2C_the_climate_change_scorecard/#more

[Uncle Joe]

1. Yes, we are in deep shit.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[seveneyes]

2. crampons

I've never known anyone to put on crampons until they have reached ice or snow. In fact, we always took them off when we reached rock, or anything other than snow or ice. It extends their life considerably when not abused on rock or scree.

[tblue37]

3. Well, the effects of Fukushima might finish us off first, but I honestly don't feel

much hope for the future.

I love my adult kids, but I often feel that I owe them an apology for bringing them into the world. And though I long for grandchildren, I am almost relieved that neither of my kids has become a parent yet.

[Control-Z]

7. tblue37, I feel exactly the same.

About Fukushima, and grandchildren. Though, my older daughter is trying to get pregnant. My younger two, a son and another daughter, are far from making those kind of choices.

It just makes me so damned sad. I try not to talk about climate change and radiation around them too much. I don't want to shatter their dreams. But I'm so afraid of what the future holds for them.

I don't understand why these aren't the first priorities for everyone, above all else.

[Warpy]

4. Perhaps not to extinction

but definitely to enormously reduced numbers and quite probably reduced lifespan.

[neverforget]

5. There will be a final war for what's left of our resources and that'll do it for us.

[octoberlib]

6. Climate change or the super volcano

Supervolcano under Yellowstone larger than previously thought, could doom mankind

A new study shows the volcano’s magma chamber about 2.5 times larger than previous estimates suggested, stretching more than 55 miles and containing between 200 to 600 cubic kilometers of molten rock.

The cavern is about 20 miles wide and nearly 2 miles deep.

“We’ve been working there for a long time, and we’ve always thought it would be bigger,” said Bob Smith, University of Utah professor. “But this finding is astounding.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/13/supervolcano-under-yellowstone-larger-than-previously-thought-could-doom-mankind/

[cthulu2016]

8. If the reference is to human extinction, this nonsense is harmful to the cause

There is nothing in any climate change scenario anyone is talking about that could plausibly lead to the extinction of Homo Sapiens.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Google up these terms

Holocene extinction.

Did I mention we are in the Holocene? I would not be that sure.