Tech | June 02, 2011 | 86 comments

The reality of global climate change/biodistress is upon us

Image
JanforGore
And we have to stop allowing the same people to shut this conversation down. We are no where near prepared for adaptation and what this will bring in the future, nevermind the present. Even if we completely stopped greenhouse gas emissions today, what we have already put up in the atmosphere over the last century would continue to play out. And yet, we continue to spew out 70 million tons of this every day as if it doesn't matter and continue listening to those whose political and economic lives depend on making this a rote issue. Well it isn't rote, and it is now upon us. And this government is doing nothing. And that is simply unacceptable. And that will be a consideration when I vote in any election.
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excerpt:

"Joplin, Mo., was prepared. The tornado warning system gave residents 24 minutes’ notice that a twister was bearing down on them. Doctors and nurses at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, who had practiced tornado drills for years, moved fast, getting patients away from windows, closing blinds, and activating emergency generators. And yet more than 130 people died in Joplin, including four people at St. John’s, where the tornado sucked up the roof and left the building in ruins, like much of the shattered city.

Even those who deny the existence of global climate change are having trouble dismissing the evidence of the last year. In the U.S. alone, nearly 1,000 tornadoes have ripped across the heartland, killing more than 500 people and inflicting $9 billion in damage. The Midwest suffered the wettest April in 116 years, forcing the Mississippi to flood thousands of square miles, even as drought-plagued Texas suffered the driest month in a century. Worldwide, the litany of weather’s extremes has reached biblical proportions. The 2010 heat wave in Russia killed an estimated 15,000 people. Floods in Australia and Pakistan killed 2,000 and left large swaths of each country under water. A months-long drought in China has devastated millions of acres of farmland. And the temperature keeps rising: 2010 was the hottest year on earth since weather records began.

From these and other extreme-weather events, one lesson is sinking in with terrifying certainty. The stable climate of the last 12,000 years is gone. Which means you haven’t seen anything yet. And we are not prepared.

Picture California a few decades from now, a place so hot and arid the state’s trademark orange and lemon trees have been replaced with olive trees that can handle the new climate. Alternating floods and droughts have made it impossible for the reservoirs to capture enough drinking water. The picturesque Highway 1, sections of which are already periodically being washed out by storm surges and mudslides, will have to be rerouted inland, possibly through a mountain. These aren’t scenes from another deadly-weather thriller like The Day After Tomorrow. They’re all changes that California officials believe they need to brace for within the next decade or two. And they aren’t alone. Across the U.S., it’s just beginning to dawn on civic leaders that they’ll need to help their communities brave coming dangers brought by climate change, from disappearing islands in Chesapeake Bay to dust bowls in the Plains and horrific hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet only 14 states are even planning, let alone implementing, climate-change adaptation plans, says Terri Cruce, a climate consultant in California. The other 36 apparently are hoping for a miracle.

The game of catch-up will have to happen quickly because so much time was lost to inaction. “The Bush administration was a disaster, but the Obama administration has accomplished next to nothing either, in part because a significant part of the Democratic Party is inclined to balk on this issue as well,” says economist Jeffrey Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. “We [are] past the tipping point.” The idea of adapting to climate change was once a taboo subject. Scientists and activists feared that focusing on coping would diminish efforts to reduce carbon emissions. On the opposite side of the divide, climate-change deniers argued that since global warming is a “hoax,” there was no need to figure out how to adapt. “Climate-change adaptation was a nonstarter,” says Vicki Arroyo, executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center. “If you wanted to talk about that, you would have had to talk about climate change itself, which the Bush administration didn’t want to do.” In fact, President Bush killed what author Mark Hertsgaard in his 2011 book, Hot, calls “a key adaptation tool,” the National Climate Assessment, an analysis of the vulnerabilities in regions of the U.S. and ideas for coping with them. The legacy of that: state efforts are spotty and local action is practically nonexistent. “There are no true adaptation experts in the federal government, let alone states or cities,” says Arroyo. “They’ve just been commandeered from other departments.”

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86 comments // The reality of global climate change/biodistress is upon us

  • rosyjane
  • 14_Crusaders
    • +1
      14_Crusaders  
    • The governments plan as in world governments, is to rid the world of 250 million people..becos 450 million people are easyer to control....With rising waters and weather..as it is now..these things will kill alot..mainly flooding waters...

    • 12 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • 14_Crusaders:

      Releasing a rare strain (laboratory-made?) of e. coli that targets people's kidneys a few weeks ago would be a good start. However, due to the fact everybody's a scientist anyone of a thousand independent nutjobs could've done that... to implicate the Bad Guy "gubbermints".

      Then you have other nutjob wannabees wanting to implicate the nutjobs, while half a dozen are trying to create artificial (but quite real) Armageddons with a HAARP system while the HAARP builders claim its for purely platonic purposes
      sendusmoretaxmoniespleez wewillprotectyou.

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
    • 0
      14_Crusaders  
    • Image
    • Gravity_Man:

      http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/
      Haarp is now working with Dulce Army Base in new Mexico...This base code name ( Rio Arriba - CODSD-3) operation Dulce ( DSD - 3 TA - D2 - CR - 357 ) Emergency Operations Army Base..DSD - RIO - Aux....Funded by the United States Air Force & US Navy...This Haarp is very interesting subject..I will have to look into it more...thanks

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • 14_Crusaders:

      For those who believe in EVOLUTION it should look like the planet is preparing a Post-Human Primordial Soup up there in the better sunlight.

      The replacement players are in a sky huddle planning our demise.

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • 14_Crusaders:

      Contrary to widespread belief I don't crave being "right", but when IT'S STARING YA IN THE FACE I WON'T DODGE IT. Those bioactive germs floating in the air have a life force that far exceeds the present human condition.

      Worst case scenario somehow the weather makes them descend on us as a plaque and we're all history. Right now all the poisonous HEAVY metals stay down here with us, probably helping kill off the germs.

      We live essentially in an invisible stew. of our own making.

      Many of our "antibiotics" are made from Crude Oil to kill th' little fellers anyway. When we switch to electric cars and Green technologies we could be sowing our own destruction. Fat people will die first, if such a thing happened. Human fat is 3600 calories rich energy per pound... the highest BTU fat of all mammals I have read.

      Whale blubber might give us a good run.

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
    • -1
      14_Crusaders  
    • Gravity_Man:

      I think that these diseases are sprayed into rain clouds..Like chem - trails then when it rains the droplets land on farms and the ground..then when the ground is dry..they blow around and into the air... Invisible stew is right...But I don't understand why going green would be so destructive...please explain...14

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • 14_Crusaders:

      Since I don't know what chem-trails really are I can't say much there, but going Heavy Green would reduce air pollution => the germs would lose their "natural enemy" once we remove it. Crude Oil molecules both raw and partially burnt hydrocarbons from our cars, could be they are our Protection [just like antibiotics made from Crude Oil].

      Our pollution could be keeping us alive while at the same time killing off the weaker ones with slow deaths from lung diseases, emphysema and lung cancer. However, those who die that way are past child-bearing years, usually past child-rearing too, so their deaths mean little, in the broader scheme of things.

      Which is Great because it saves Social Security!

      Ditto on keeping using Coal, because Coal puts a lot of Mercury in the air. I seriously doubt the beasties can stand Mercury.

    • 12 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • 14_Crusaders:

      Well, everyone dies so supposedly paying taxes is to go ahead of us making things better for those who come behind us. We no longer live for ourselves good friend, we do it "for the children".

      If we achieve Peace => it's for the children. If we achieve Prosperity => it will come to the children. Interestingly too if we do all that "for the children" we may escape the conclusion found at 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5 verse 3.

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
    • 0
      14_Crusaders  
    • Gravity_Man:

      "GO GREEN"......... But mercury posses a problem as well....So No matter what we try to do..we end up dead either way in the long run.....We, all of the world should have backyard wind turbines ...that's a start to going Green...Create power for our self's. All ride sk8boards..& electric scooters....Bikes, electric buses, Natural gas airlines...someday electric airlines...the tops of the planes can all be solar panels , wings as well. I can think of 1000 Go Green things.....

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • 14_Crusaders:

      You can survive mercury if you get a good solid nutrient-rich diet. Your body cells can repair you up faster than pollution kills you... by making extra stem cells.

      The future is going to be very nice for believers, according to Revelation 21 v 3 & 4. Tears will be no more, neither death nor pain, the former things have passed away.

      Take care of your future, let others take care of theirs. They'll follow many numerous false trails. That little trick trying to avoid 1 Thess. 5 v 3, it won't work. Saying Peace & Safety for the children is still saying Peace & Safety!

      BTW, this coming June 26 is the 66 year anniversary of the United Nations Charter being signed in 1945. The World has been free of "World War" for 66 years, which means the UN has indeed caused Peace & Safety (Security) to happen, small wars does not negate that.

      Trust in Jesus, you'll be OK.

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • 14_Crusaders:

      Your beliefs can either be true or false, from God or men & demons. What you have basically stated is just a twist on what the demons have most people already believing => Yes We Can. It is in fact the message that comes from the OUIJA boards (demons), since Oui is pronounced We and ja is a shortened truncation of Jah and Yahweh, or Jehovah.

      Yes We Can is the Devil's message, that We can be God, same message he messed us up with in the garden.

      Jesus preached a "kingdom of the heavens" not a kingdom on Earth as the Jews and Catholics keep saying. Jews and Catholics are aligned with Satan in that way. Not every religion is blessed by God, whether He is an "alien" or not. They will not survive the coming sieve.

      In short, you have been deceived by the best.

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Image
    • 14_Crusaders:

      No. They baptized YOU, you didn't choose it. You can decide to investigate further and jump ship. Perhaps this thread will help => http://tinyurl.com/voodoowitchdoctormagicreligion

      You can leave the fate of the Pew Sitters behind you. You can also forget all that junk they fed you about hell being hot. Fire was used in the Bible to represent complete and everlasting annihilation not torture. Deuteronomy 18 v 10 shows us God would NEVER make such a place.

    • 12 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • 14_Crusaders
  • freehit
    • +3
      freehit  
    • Hmmm, Ronnie Ray-gun wouldn't say the word AIDs in hope that it would just go away.Didn't work. The government ignored it until the people who were dieing from it got in their face about it.(ACT UP) George Wanker Bush didn't want to talk about climate change in the hope that it was just made up. The government is ignoring it because people aren't getting in it's face about it. I guess when the death toll reaches in the tens of thousands from hurricanes and tornadoes in one year maybe people will start acting up and forcing the issue. Talk about too little too late.

    • 12 months ago
  • 40blanco
    • -5
      40blanco  
    • Global Warming is pseudo science bullshit only meant to raise taxes and put ppl in fear core samples taken from the north pole showed that the earth on average was 2 degrees celsius higher 2000yrs ago than it is today

    • 12 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • onemalefla
  • JanforGore
  • smartyartypants
  • JanforGore
  • ninetyseven
    • +2
      ninetyseven  
    • Touchy subject here.....
      First law of the universe and earth is Order
      Second law is Change.
      Planet seems to be changing...
      There is a Third law.....
      use your imaginations ...and i will post MY answer.
      its not good.

    • 12 months ago
  • ninetyseven
  • Warren_Merrill
    • +2
      Warren_Merrill  
    • Name the global warming crackpot:

      The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate

      On the first Earth Day in 1970, he warned that in ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish.

      In a 1971 speech, he predicted that: "By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people ... If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000."

      Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Reverend Camping of the environmental movement ...... Professor Paul Ehrlich

    • 12 months ago
  • maasanova
  • coolplanet
  • JanforGore
  • Warren_Merrill
  • coolplanet
    • 0
      coolplanet  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Hey, don't expect us to spend all day looking up things you've posted in the past.
      If you were smart you'd keep a folder with all the links to sources backing up your claims. Then it would take only a minute to repost them.
      Face it. You have nothing.
      Just pathetic excuses.

    • 12 months ago
  • samthesixth
  • JanforGore
  • tverdell
  • samthesixth
  • JanforGore
  • samthesixth
  • JanforGore
  • samthesixth
  • JanforGore
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  
    • JanforGore:

      Sorry, don't mean for it to feel like an inquisition. I know how passionate you are about this issue and I think part of what has undermined the issue is the changing language. As you have been involved in it for years, I thought I would try to get an understanding of the nuances of the language used and how it has changed overtime. I think "climate change" is wholly inadequate to describe what is going on. My questions to you were honest, with no hidden agenda.

      Having said all that, I will go on record here.

      First and foremost I believe that "biodistress" is real.

      Second, I believe in Lovelock's theory that earth can be viewed as an organism.

      Third, the organism is way more complex and self sustaining than we are

      Fourth, (and I know this will be unpopular) we have almost no ability to make positive meaningful impacts on the organism that will result in the changes that some think will be necessary. This is the point at which the average environmentalist part ways. I am not advocating doing nothing. I advocate going basic and local and, as you know, growing your own and living off the grid.

    • 12 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • -1
      Gravity_Man  
    • samthesixth:

      Americans still want, and expect, the old America. In our mind we think 30 years ago, always. Americans are in love, with an America, that no longer exists.

      They worked hard, held the golden chalice, and thought the golden chalice was glued to their hands. Overconfidence loses races.

      We wanted to think we were all Robert Wagner. Maybe we were, for 10 minutes, but unlike Robert Wagner the head honchos thought the rest of the world would bow before a giant Robert Wagner.

      James Arness is no more, the greats are falling and the mighty are falling and we are not Robert Wagner. Robert Wagner is Robert Wagner. We're nuthin'.

      Maybe we're quitters and losers.

      But, when I find a used 3,000 or 5,000 btu air conditioner and get an inverter to supply it 110V, I'll be a winner having air conditioning in my car. Which then means everyone else will be quitters and losers not me.

    • 12 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • IceKat
  • coolplanet
  • squarethecircle
    • +2
      squarethecircle  
    • Awake humans can no longer afford to say our problem is this or that. You can't say the air, the water, the forests, pollution, loss of species, and on and on is the individual issue that must be salvaged. We know all these problems are linked. The small group that has all the resources and controls the world through puppet governments and the banks with their names on them doesn't care about the planet our it's inhabitants. We need to stop railing about one issue and turn our entire approach from crushing the world to suit our needs to cherishing Earth. There are enough resources for everyone if we direct them where the should go, take only what we need and give back more than we take. Treat the planet as if we are a part of this system and not separate and aloof...we are the caretakers and Earth is hurting regardless of what finger you want to point.

    • 12 months ago
  • uShine
  • JanforGore
  • uShine
  • JanforGore
  • hombre76
    • 0
      hombre76  
    • JanforGore:

      HUH interesting glacial earthquake causation could definatly acount for all of the major earth quakes I could think of off the top of my head, shezuan in china the chile quakes and even Japan,s recent one.

    • 12 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • I can feel tornadoes coming. It's an ability I gained from my accidents in 86 & 89. I feel some big ones gathering energy. I feel them and also hurricanes sometimes many hundreds of miles away.

      Good picture Jan. Looks like The Grapes of Wrath, so you may want to pass it through PhotoShop. You might upset some climate change deniers.

      There was a Star Trek episode where Picard got flashed by a space probe and it made him live a complete lifetime in his mind experiencing the death of their civilization. How the ground got dry, and the water rationed.

      We seem to be living our movies, so fascinated by our movies coming true we can't move. We become statues. Birds like statues a lot, even more than car windshields.

    • 12 months ago
  • ninetyseven
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • ninetyseven:

      Sunday morning, peaceful. Birds singing happy songs, no doubt enjoying the dew all over the grass, perhaps a morning bath. They seem to be letting each other finish their song before they sing, very respectful birds out today...

      Had a bird go past my window the other day, in quite a hurry, a bird I had never heard before. His wings made a ka-flap, stop, ka-flap, stop, sounded like a plane engine I heard before coming into an airport low on fuel, sputter on, sputter off. A Fokker biplane!!!

      I will call this new bird the Red Baron.

    • 12 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • maasanova
    • +2
      maasanova  
    • "climate-change deniers argued that since global warming is a “hoax,” "there was no need to figure out how to adapt."

      Another false representation of the facts.

      Global warming has been proved repeatedly to have been not what it has been purported to be and no amount of highlighting the extreme weather is going to change that.

      And furthermore I don't think that there are any serious "deniers" who won't admit that there are serious environmental problems. The "deniers" simply didn't agree to the solution that was being offered by global warming promoters.

    • 12 months ago
  • maasanova
    • -5
      maasanova  
    • I admit that we are having some rather unsettling extreme weather recently, but when haven't we had some rather unsettling extreme weather? And earth has had stable climate of the last 12,000 years?

      Is this a serious statement based on any kind of facts whatsoever?

    • 12 months ago
  • tverdell
    • 0
      tverdell  
    • maasanova:

      Your point would be valid if it wasn't for the fact that all of the extreme weather is happening all at once.

      Surely isolated extreme events are normal.

      But we just can't explain away having the hottest summer on record followed by one of the most coldest winters on records including record snowfall. Not to mention the long laundry list of extreme events.

      This should concern all of us.

      I think it's not sincere to concede to climate change.

      I am visiting Atlanta right now and the weatherman said for the next 3 weeks we will have a heat wave. Three weeks, before the summer even starts. That is not normal. Very much not normal being so far out in the spring.

      Yet when I go back to San Francisco I will experience rain and colder than normal temperatures. It is not supposed to rain in SF and southern California in May, but it is.

      Can we chalk all of this up to coincidence?

      What will people say when we have heat waves similar to last summer once again?

      Just normal events?

      I don't think the 'insert label here' will be able to deny GW much longer.

    • 12 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • Warren_Merrill
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • tverdell:

      "Can we chalk all of this up to coincidence?" you ask, eh tverdell? No, it's called CHAOS actually, unabridged climate chaos, sometimes light, sometimes heavy, BUT NEVER JUST RIGHT.

      We cant even match Goldilocks and the Three Bears!!!

    • 12 months ago
  • ArchDruid
  • telcod
    • 0
      telcod  
    • ArchDruid:

      Nope. Why should they? It's bad for business and everyone knows that the free market will eventually fix every fuck up it creates...... eventually....... Just like the Roman Empire fixed its' mistakes...... cause everyone can see how well Rome is doing today...... Right?

      I say, let's role the dice on the survival of our species. What have we got to lose? In the big scheme of things, or is that the big scream of things, we are little more than a wart on our mother earth's ass. If climate change don't get us, over population will. As the great Oracle, Blondie put it, "One way or another, I'm gonna get you......."

    • 12 months ago
  • thedirtman
    • +2
      thedirtman  
    • Something stated in the conclusion (page 4):

      'So what lies behind America’s resistance to action? Economist Sachs points to the lobbying power of industries that resist acknowledgment of climate change’s impact. “The country is two decades behind in taking action because both parties are in thrall to Big Oil and Big Coal,” says Sachs. “The airwaves are filled with corporate-financed climate misinformation.” But the vanguard of action isn’t waiting any longer.'

      In summary, Big Oil and Big Coal want what is best for them. Profits. Big Oil does not care about your health. Knowing this what motive should people have for jumping off the ship to save Big Oil?

    • 12 months ago
  • telcod
    • +1
      telcod  
    • thedirtman:

      Kinda scary that you have to restate the obvious. This ain't news brother. This is just the tip of the iceberg in corporate sponsored american democracy. The best democracy money can buy.

    • 12 months ago
  • percipi224
    • 0
      percipi224  
    • thedirtman:

      i read this morning on Alternet, that Wikkileaks revealed that our govt. along with Russia, China and Canada and a few minor players are dividing up the soon to exposed arctic for oil exploitation and trying to avoid armed conflict over it. They know climate change is inevitable and rather than prepare the Earths people for this fact, they rush to grab oil for yet more profit. Why do you think food is now a commodity traded and speculated upon by hedge funds? They know also. Why do you suppose insurance companies are pulling out of whole regions? damn.

    • 12 months ago
  • noxidereus
  • sharin
    • +2
      sharin  
    • thanks for the article Jan. I sure don't understand how ANYone can deny the effects our polution is having on the atmosphere

    • 12 months ago
  • letsliveinpeace
  • hombre76
    • +3
      hombre76  
    • This is the end ...
      my only friend the end ...
      of our elaborate plans the end...
      of everything that stands the end...
      no safety or suprise the end..
      I'll never look into your eyes again....

      good ol jim, bout sums it up well I think

    • 12 months ago
  • telcod
  • hombre76
  • coolplanet
    • +2
      coolplanet  
    • What is truly disturbing is that these severe changes are currently happening in a matter of a few years instead of the decades scientists thought it would occur.
      It is no longer a matter of leaving this mess for our children and grandchildren to deal with.
      The big question among climatologists has been: "How will clouds respond to global warming?" We are presently witnessing how clouds are responding.
      Violently!

    • 12 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • coolplanet:

      Yes, that is the red flag. And they are happening faster than we can keep up with adaptation, because we were remiss in working on mitigation. I swear as long as I live I will not be able to understand the human psyche and why crises need to get so urgent that then and only then do people go into the we need to do something about this phase, which by then is too late. What has happened to reason and rationality? Is greed that pervasive and destructive in human nature? That blinding?

    • 12 months ago
  • telcod
  • Warren_Merrill
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      This isn't about declaring the end. This is about seeing reality and working to adapt to it. But of course you would seek to spread unrelated misinformation because you don't understand what this is all about.

    • 12 months ago
  • Warren_Merrill
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      The horror of Chernobyl was a big turning point, people came to realize our civilization has a limited run, therefore nothing they could do about it, a rather understandable conclusion added to Three Mile Island, and now Deepwater Horizon & the meltdown of Japan, who til recently was standing at the head of the class => AS OUR RESPECTED TEACHER MISS KNOWEVERYTHINGDOESEVERYTHINGRIGHT.

      Psychologically the masses have fallen, and they can't get up. The only way they can hold onto a shred of sanity is to don the blinders, and the ones who don't are sometimes in the News for offing their family.

      Then everyone reading the News and reading yet another man offed his family put on a double set of blinders, all they can see is their way to drive to work, come back, stop at the store on the way back so they don't have to go out again, surviving only because the kids need to get to ball practice. They hinge their Life on what their growing children need to have a life, but when the chiildren are gone it soon becomes obvious there's little reason to continue on.

      UNLESS, OH YES, THE CHILDREN HAVE CHILDREN WE'RE SAVED!!!

    • 12 months ago
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