Is It Warm in Here?
I was reading this story the other day by David Ignatius, Is It Warm in Here? I wanted to read the story by Elizabeth Kolbert he referenced in his article, Global Warning. While searching for that, I found another three articles by Kolbert that were very long, but disturbing nonetheless:
The Climate of Man
It’s amazing how conservative types think that global warming is a myth. I remember this time of year back in 1977. Buffalo NY was in the middle of a bad winter, and a week from today, we would be hit by the only storm declared a natural disaster and national emergency by both the Canadian and American governments. This year, we are basking in the 40′s, rather than in the teens and zeroes like I remember from my high school days. Even the Goddard Institute for Space Studies states that 2005 was the warmest year in recent history (without an El Nino to assist the heating). Despite the fact that GISS is a government institution with scientific data showing that we are experiencing an unnatural heating cycle that is perilous to life on Earth, we aren’t experiencing global warming. Supposedly.
One need only look at reality to see that we’ve really fucked the climate, and by the time I’m ready to retire, it’s very likely that much of the planet will be unlivable. I do my part by trying to recycle, keeping the thermostat below 60 and wearing sweaters, using public transportation rather than driving, etc. How do we get others to change how they live? We have to do something, although, for all intents and purposes, it may be too late.
I remember reading a short story by Philip K. Dick about a year ago, wherein an explorer party was on Mars seeing if it could be terraformed. Global warming and overpopulation on Earth had all but destroyed the planet. As it turns out, the explorers discover that mankind originated on Mars, and after destroying that planet migrated to Earth. The suggestion is that we are repeating history in destroying this planet. While the story is fiction, I have to wonder if there is more than just a grain of truth to it.
