'We are rapidly remaking the planet and beginning to suffer the consequences'

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

In the more than two decades since world leaders first got together to try to solve global warming, life on Earth has changed, not just the climate. It's gotten hotter, more polluted with heat-trapping gases, more crowded and just downright wilder.

The numbers are stark. Carbon dioxide emissions: up 60 percent. Global temperature: up six-tenths of a degree. Population: up 1.7 billion people. Sea level: up 3 inches. U.S. extreme weather: up 30 percent. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica: down 4.9 trillion tons of ice.

"Simply put, we are rapidly remaking the planet and beginning to suffer the consequences," says Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University.

... The Associated Press scoured databases from around the world. The analysis, which looked at data since 1983, concentrated on 10-year intervals ending in 1992 and 2013. This is because scientists say single years can be misleading and longer trends are more telling.

Our changing world by the numbers:

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_27050337/how-climate-has-changed-earth-20-years

[Newsjock]

1. So, there's this from The Newsroom:

[olddots]

2. we create our own armageddons

We would still be using whale oil if we didn't almost kill them all off and the people who never saw a whale wouldn't have given a shit .Most people haven't seen a stream or a glacier except for a picture they think is entertainment instead of a fragile living planet that we have aborted maybe from thinking that we are more important than mother nature .

Sorry about the " aborted " and " mother nature " catch phrases but it seems like most of the humans who want to over populate the planet are not concerned about why and what enable us to be here in the first damn place .

[cilla4progress]

3. The discussion now must be

what are we going to do about it? How are we going to adapt. Personally, and globally. We are past the point of prevention, though must do all we can to keep it from getting worse, as much as possible.

I am going to have a discussion with my family about more actions we can take on our little parcel in the dry forest of eastern Washington. We already lost everything to wildfire in 1994, and they ravaged our area last year, although we were spared.

My daughter is completing a study abroad in Costa Rica right now, as an environmental policy major (bless her heart!). We are headed there for 12 days to join her. When we get back, I am going to ask her to start with us - recommending policies we can implement. When we rebuilt here after the fire (a decision I sometimes question, but really - is anywhere safe from climate change?), we were very intentional in our building design and materials to build "fire-safe." When fires were upon us last summer, we took many steps around the property to help with prevention - trimming trees; cleaning up brush piles. There's more we can do, and this is where our efforts will now lie.

god save us all

[BubbaFett]

4. I have a vision

of fire raining from the heavens, cataclysmic thunderstorms with .5 mile wide lightning bolts, disruption of the supply chain, people dying off in the streets . . .


and everyone else will be walking around playing with their smartphones.