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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Faster Than We Thought': An Epitaph for Planet Earth
Published on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 by Common Dreams
'Faster Than We Thought': An Epitaph for Planet Earth
by John Atcheson
Sometime later this Century, a writer will sit down and attempt to document how his or her grandparents generation could have all but ignored the greatest disaster humanity has ever faced.
It wont be a pleasant world she lives in. Cities and countries will be locked in an expensive battle with rapidly rising seas; but after spending trillions of dollars, most of the worlds ports will have been abandoned anyway.
Up to seventy percent of the planets species will be wiped out. Gone. Vanished. Kaput. Songbirds will no longer serenade us. Butterflies will no longer dazzle us. The boreal forests the largest belt of green in the world will be gone.
Brutal heat waves will be the norm. Off-the-chart hurricanes and storms will be the rule. Deserts will have expanded. Haboobs, giant black blizzards of dust will sweep across vast portions of the USs high plains and the southwest. The Amazon rainforest will be a shrunken, wizened remnant of a once vast source of life. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/23-5
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'Faster Than We Thought': An Epitaph for Planet Earth (Original Post)
marmar
May 2012
OP
hatrack
(59,602 posts)1. But as long as we did our best to uphold Shareholder Value and helped spread Freedumb, who cares?
Tool Monkeys - FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. Du rec. Nt
FirstLight
(13,367 posts)3. the lede is still a bit off...
'later this century' ... meaning in the next 70 years? ...how about 30...
I am shocked that this is not a greater emergency than terrorism, instead of a DHS, we need a Dept of Earth-aid
whatever, it was nice knowing all of you...see you on the flip side
glinda
(14,807 posts)4. I am guessing 20 years.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)5. Depends on how long it takes for Fukishima to get even worse than it is.
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)6. Drill Baby Drill
Uncle Joe
(58,524 posts)7. Kicked and recommended.
Thanks for the thread, marmar.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)8. Too bad we gave up on space
We're on a sinking ship so we toss out the lifeboats because maintaining them is too expensive.
/if it's not the environment it'll be something else. The earth is a big target and fragile. We need to get out of here.
Uncle Joe
(58,524 posts)9. I agree re: the need to master space travel and be able to migrate from Earth but I don't
believe we've given up yet.
NASA is focusing more on long distance space travel and exploration as private endeavors take over the burden of near Earth space travel, ie: the space station.