The Most Read Worst News
...Spelled Out in the Most-Read Story Ever in....
Magazine
Art with a terrible message*
The article, in the June 9, 2017 issue of New York Magazine, was the most read in the magazine's history. It was titled, simply:
The Uninhabitable Earth
Pretty straight forward, no? Maybe a little hyperbolic; not every square mile of Earth will be uninhabitable, even in 50 years. Just a very great deal of our planet will be purely awful and most totally unliveable. Hundreds of millions of climate refugees will head for what livable space is left. They will be desperate.
The situation, in a few powerful sentences scattered through the piece:
1. It is, I promise, worse than you think.
2. Even when we train our eyes on climate change, we are unable to comprehend its scope.
3. But no matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough.
4. We are currently adding carbon to the atmosphere at a considerably faster rate (than during the largest "extinction event"); by most estimates, at least ten times faster.
5. The rate is accelerating.
[The climate will kill us with heat, seas rising, floods and such, but food?]
6. Precipitation is notoriously hard to model, yet predictions for later this century are basically unanimous: unprecedented droughts nearly everywhere food is today produced.
... It goes on and is wonderfully written. If you like horror stories - real ones - you should read it here. (By
6. Precipitation is notoriously hard to model, yet predictions for later this century are basically unanimous: unprecedented droughts nearly everywhere food is today produced.
... It goes on and is wonderfully written. If you like horror stories - real ones - you should read it here. (By
As you faithful readers know, I have been edging into hyperbole about climate change and the coming Great Die Back for years now. My better rants:
1. Mass Extinction Underway
2. The Slo-Mo Trainwreck Continues
3. The Warmest YearWorldwide in Human History
4.THE SECOND SCARIEST STUFF ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE
... Etc. Go deep; no telling what you'll find
This NYMag piece is better, more current, wider spectrum research amalgamation!
A bottom line thought about the next 50 years might be to consider the last 37 years. "Since 1980, the planet has experienced a 50-fold increase in the number of places experiencing dangerous or extreme heat; a bigger increase is to come." Or, "By 2080, without dramatic reductions in emissions, southern Europe will be in permanent extreme drought, much worse than the American dust bowl ever was."
These are credible projections. Check them out.
**
Afternoon on the Moors of Britain, 2080?
So what can one do with this kind of information?
1. Absorb it carefully. Check with your own research anything that seems questionable to you. Fold it into you view of reality.
2. Use the new knowledge carefully when discussing this literally earth-shattering issue with your acquaintances who perhaps haven't seen the seriousness, or even believe the whole thing is bunk. (It's hard to change a mind; give others a path to change their own mind.)
3. Weave this into your decisions on who you vote for.
4. Spend some idle time thinking about the practical considerations for anyone you know under 15. Especially if you love them.
When they are 50 it will be 2067 or later. Will they - can they - be ready for that world?
P.S. Think that's bad? Mix in war, terrorism and WMDs and it gets way worse. As it does in A Reluctant God. Think that might happen, with all the friendly reactions everyone has to refugees and how grumpy people are when they are very, very hot?
*Fossils by Heartless Machine
** http://better-biking.com/archives/573
1. Mass Extinction Underway
2. The Slo-Mo Trainwreck Continues
3. The Warmest YearWorldwide in Human History
4.THE SECOND SCARIEST STUFF ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE
... Etc. Go deep; no telling what you'll find
This NYMag piece is better, more current, wider spectrum research amalgamation!
A bottom line thought about the next 50 years might be to consider the last 37 years. "Since 1980, the planet has experienced a 50-fold increase in the number of places experiencing dangerous or extreme heat; a bigger increase is to come." Or, "By 2080, without dramatic reductions in emissions, southern Europe will be in permanent extreme drought, much worse than the American dust bowl ever was."
These are credible projections. Check them out.
**So what can one do with this kind of information?
1. Absorb it carefully. Check with your own research anything that seems questionable to you. Fold it into you view of reality.
2. Use the new knowledge carefully when discussing this literally earth-shattering issue with your acquaintances who perhaps haven't seen the seriousness, or even believe the whole thing is bunk. (It's hard to change a mind; give others a path to change their own mind.)
3. Weave this into your decisions on who you vote for.
4. Spend some idle time thinking about the practical considerations for anyone you know under 15. Especially if you love them.
When they are 50 it will be 2067 or later. Will they - can they - be ready for that world?
P.S. Think that's bad? Mix in war, terrorism and WMDs and it gets way worse. As it does in A Reluctant God. Think that might happen, with all the friendly reactions everyone has to refugees and how grumpy people are when they are very, very hot?
*Fossils by Heartless Machine
** http://better-biking.com/archives/573
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