Do You, Mr. Jones
Day after day, the climate change stories just continue to roll out.
Yet, somehow the biggest event in the history of humankind continues to be carefully avoided by the main streamers. Now, the world's largest general scientific society has joined the IPCC in declaring the issue a threat.
Climate change 'growing threat to society': AAAS
Feb. 19 2007
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- The world's largest general scientific society on Sunday joined the concern over global climate change, calling it a "growing threat to society."
It is the first consensus statement of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on climate change. It comes just weeks after the International Panel on Climate Change issued its most recent report on human-induced warming.
"The evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now and is a growing threat to society," the AAAS said at its annual meeting.
"Scientists are observing the rapid melting of glaciers, destabilization of major ice sheets, rising sea levels, shifts in species ranges and increased frequency of weather extremes," said John P. Holdren, director of the Woods Hole Research Center and AAAS president. more
And, there is this story.
Scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
David Adam, environment correspondent
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian
A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Such melting would raise sea levels by four to six metres, the scientists say. It would cause "major changes in coastline and inundation of low-lying areas" and require "costly and challenging" efforts to move millions of people and infrastructure from vulnerable areas.
The previous official line, issued in 2001, was that the chance of such an event was "not well known, but probably very low". clip
The warning appears in a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the likely impacts of global warming and will be published in April. A final draft of the report's summary-for-policymakers chapter, obtained by the Guardian, says: "Very large sea level rises that would result from widespread deglaciation of Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets imply major changes in coastlines and inundation of low-lying areas, with greatest effects in river deltas.
"Relocating populations, economic activity and infrastructure would be costly and challenging. There is medium confidence that both ice sheets would be committed to partial deglaciation for a global average temperature increase greater than 1-2C, causing sea level rise of 4-6m over centuries to millennia." Medium confidence means about a five in 10 chance." more
Under normal news editorial guidelines, the predicted loss of most of the world's great coastal cities in a period that is shorter than the age of the building stock of those cities, would constitute news.
Yet, it is not.
We are instead fed our standard fare of Libby and the politics of war.
Something is going on here, and we do know exactly what it is.
You see,
If we truly accept our situation.
It will be bad for business, and they know it.
If we truly accept our situation,
It will be be hard to deify the all-knowing market.
If we truly accept our situation,
this news would represent the greatest market failure
in the history of humankind.
The glitz, and the glamour, and the greed of our Corporate culture
will be permanently and fatally wounded,
And they know it.
That's why you'll see a story about a long missing little girl,
or a tragic fallen hero on the news tonight.
These corporate magicians of the air want to keep your eyes,
and your ears, and your brain, looking over there.
Instead of here
That's what it is.
Mr. Jones
"The longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and more expensive the task will be."
Yet, somehow the biggest event in the history of humankind continues to be carefully avoided by the main streamers. Now, the world's largest general scientific society has joined the IPCC in declaring the issue a threat.
Climate change 'growing threat to society': AAAS
Feb. 19 2007
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- The world's largest general scientific society on Sunday joined the concern over global climate change, calling it a "growing threat to society."
It is the first consensus statement of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on climate change. It comes just weeks after the International Panel on Climate Change issued its most recent report on human-induced warming.
"The evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now and is a growing threat to society," the AAAS said at its annual meeting.
"Scientists are observing the rapid melting of glaciers, destabilization of major ice sheets, rising sea levels, shifts in species ranges and increased frequency of weather extremes," said John P. Holdren, director of the Woods Hole Research Center and AAAS president. more
And, there is this story.
Scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
David Adam, environment correspondent
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian
A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Such melting would raise sea levels by four to six metres, the scientists say. It would cause "major changes in coastline and inundation of low-lying areas" and require "costly and challenging" efforts to move millions of people and infrastructure from vulnerable areas.
The previous official line, issued in 2001, was that the chance of such an event was "not well known, but probably very low". clip
The warning appears in a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the likely impacts of global warming and will be published in April. A final draft of the report's summary-for-policymakers chapter, obtained by the Guardian, says: "Very large sea level rises that would result from widespread deglaciation of Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets imply major changes in coastlines and inundation of low-lying areas, with greatest effects in river deltas.
"Relocating populations, economic activity and infrastructure would be costly and challenging. There is medium confidence that both ice sheets would be committed to partial deglaciation for a global average temperature increase greater than 1-2C, causing sea level rise of 4-6m over centuries to millennia." Medium confidence means about a five in 10 chance." more
Under normal news editorial guidelines, the predicted loss of most of the world's great coastal cities in a period that is shorter than the age of the building stock of those cities, would constitute news.
Yet, it is not.
We are instead fed our standard fare of Libby and the politics of war.
Something is going on here, and we do know exactly what it is.
You see,
If we truly accept our situation.
It will be bad for business, and they know it.
If we truly accept our situation,
It will be be hard to deify the all-knowing market.
If we truly accept our situation,
this news would represent the greatest market failure
in the history of humankind.
The glitz, and the glamour, and the greed of our Corporate culture
will be permanently and fatally wounded,
And they know it.
That's why you'll see a story about a long missing little girl,
or a tragic fallen hero on the news tonight.
These corporate magicians of the air want to keep your eyes,
and your ears, and your brain, looking over there.
Instead of here
That's what it is.
Mr. Jones
"The longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and more expensive the task will be."
Labels: climate change
posted by oZ @ 2:52 PM
1 Comments:
"Happy Feet," the movie at the Texas Museum IMax, is an animated opera that dramatizes human impact on the environmental, with a hopeful surprise ending. I liked it as much as my grandson, three year old Isaac.
FM
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