We, stupid Canadians , have been yipping and yapping about more military spending for years. New ships, F35's: more,more,more. Before us we have the battlefield of the future presented but our best military minds can't understand cyberspace. What has to be done to make our generals, politicians and reporters understand.
Mound, thanks for the Clarke videos. Not only does he explain the Russian interference in the American election in a way that conforms with what I know about computers but he also introduced me to James Hansen. So I moved over here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/22/sea-level-rise-james-hansen-climate-change-scientist
Hansen understands the exponential effect, the acceleration of global warming. The warmer it gets the faster it will get even warmer. And faster and faster and faster, etc. Our exalted leaders who think they can stop the warming at 1.5 or 2 are simply dreaming.
I have faith that humans will survive but the numbers could easily be a few scattered tribes of hunter gatherers. I think it was Einstein who said he did not know how WWIII would be fought but he knew that WWIV would be fought with sticks and stones. Global Warming could be our WWIII.
Toby, Hansen was America's top climate change advocate during his years as the director of NASA's Goddard Space Laboratory. In 1988, using models produced by the latest computer technology, Hansen appeared before Congress to sound the alarm about global warming. I have one of his books kicking around here somewhere. Fascinating guy. He even got himself arrested in a climate change protest.
Dana, I'm pretty sure there'll always be something for the hunter-gatherers. It may consume most of their waking hours gathering enough to subsist upon but there won't be any X-Box to compete for their time.
"“We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, *with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulfuric acid*,” the professor explained. “Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it’s one we can prevent if we act now.”
Dana, Hawking is obviously right. Yeah, it is in our power to undo much of the damage that global warming threatens to trigger. It's not our ability to act. It's our utter lack of will. Climate change is just one of three, perhaps four, existential challenges facing mankind and, unfortunately, most other life on Earth. We can't succeed on any of them without resolving them all.
How are we going to bring the Earth's population down to a sustainable level. Right now that would entail trimming out numbers by far more than half. How do you build the essential consensus for that without getting into the discussions we won't get into - about things such as equity and fairness. Suddenly climate change spills over into depopulation and then into shrinking the global economy until it becomes a sustainable subset of the environment. All three of them inevitably invoke the "lifeboat syndrome." That means a new form of organization that would be seen by some as deprivation, rationing.
Can you imagine the degree of enlightenment that would require and how we're light years away from that mindset? Dana, I just don't think there's nearly enough time left to get the helm hard over before we hit that iceberg.
If Clarke is right, there is a very bad moon rising.
ReplyDeleteWe, stupid Canadians , have been yipping and yapping about more military spending for years. New ships, F35's: more,more,more. Before us we have the battlefield of the future presented but our best military minds can't understand cyberspace. What has to be done to make our generals, politicians and reporters understand.
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ReplyDeleteIt's pretty hard for a Hussar to see war as anything beyond a cavalry charge.
Mound, thanks for the Clarke videos. Not only does he explain the Russian interference in the American election in a way that conforms with what I know about computers but he also introduced me to James Hansen. So I moved over here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/22/sea-level-rise-james-hansen-climate-change-scientist
ReplyDeleteHansen understands the exponential effect, the acceleration of global warming. The warmer it gets the faster it will get even warmer. And faster and faster and faster, etc. Our exalted leaders who think they can stop the warming at 1.5 or 2 are simply dreaming.
I have faith that humans will survive but the numbers could easily be a few scattered tribes of hunter gatherers. I think it was Einstein who said he did not know how WWIII would be fought but he knew that WWIV would be fought with sticks and stones. Global Warming could be our WWIII.
Toby, I'd be interested in learning what you think those few scattered tribes of hunter gatherers will be hunting and gathering.
ReplyDeleteWhat flora and fauna do you figure are hardy enough, nutritious enough and will be able to reproduce sufficiently?
To follow up on Hanson, here's a good video. "Jim Hansen: Hell Will Break Loose - Ice Melt, Sea Level Rise"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLk8Uy2-Lsk
Toby, Hansen was America's top climate change advocate during his years as the director of NASA's Goddard Space Laboratory. In 1988, using models produced by the latest computer technology, Hansen appeared before Congress to sound the alarm about global warming. I have one of his books kicking around here somewhere. Fascinating guy. He even got himself arrested in a climate change protest.
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ReplyDeleteDana, I'm pretty sure there'll always be something for the hunter-gatherers. It may consume most of their waking hours gathering enough to subsist upon but there won't be any X-Box to compete for their time.
Dana, hunter gathers would have to eat whatever they can find and most of it would not look appetizing to you and me. Start with insects and worms.
ReplyDeleteStart with insects and worms.
ReplyDeleteLuxury..
We had to live on...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
Global warming ( call it what it is) will cause huge population movements; indeed we are seeing it now tho we blame it upon political issues.
TB
I have faith that humans will survive but the numbers could easily be a few scattered tribes of hunter gatherers.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Dana.
Best hope for survival is for high-tech enclaves who can maintain the civil infrastructure (ie education etc) to support production of energy.
PS: How's that impeachment coming along Mound?
A recent Stephen Hawking comment:
ReplyDelete"“We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, *with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulfuric acid*,” the professor explained. “Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it’s one we can prevent if we act now.”
Well cooked insects and worms.
Soon, NPoV, soon - I hope. If the Repugs see Trump as a mortal threat to the hold on Congress in the mid-terms they'll turn on him fast enough.
ReplyDeleteDana, Hawking is obviously right. Yeah, it is in our power to undo much of the damage that global warming threatens to trigger. It's not our ability to act. It's our utter lack of will. Climate change is just one of three, perhaps four, existential challenges facing mankind and, unfortunately, most other life on Earth. We can't succeed on any of them without resolving them all.
ReplyDeleteHow are we going to bring the Earth's population down to a sustainable level. Right now that would entail trimming out numbers by far more than half. How do you build the essential consensus for that without getting into the discussions we won't get into - about things such as equity and fairness. Suddenly climate change spills over into depopulation and then into shrinking the global economy until it becomes a sustainable subset of the environment. All three of them inevitably invoke the "lifeboat syndrome." That means a new form of organization that would be seen by some as deprivation, rationing.
Can you imagine the degree of enlightenment that would require and how we're light years away from that mindset? Dana, I just don't think there's nearly enough time left to get the helm hard over before we hit that iceberg.
Oh, I agree entirely.
ReplyDeleteTrying to live cheerfully, creatively, cooperatively and yet not in denial is the hardest part.