Little Did We Know. Maybe We Just Didn't Want to Know.

 

Back when the science types introduced global warming to we plebs they began with a few basic predictions. 

The first one was that the world was going to get warmer. Has it ever, in spades. Something like 18 of the  hottest years on record have occurred in the last 20 years. They were sure on the money there.

They told us that dry regions of the world would get drier and, by and large, they got that one right too.  Ask any farmer or rancher from the prairie provinces.

Then they told us that the wettest regions would get wetter, a lot wetter.  Look no further than the Fraser Valley or British Columbia's washed out mountain highways or rail lines.  British Columbians are no strangers to rain, lots of rain, but this is ridiculous.

Were I to grade them, I'd give them an A-. I'd like to make that an A+ but, overall, their predictions were understated. Climate breakdown has happened more rapidly than they foresaw 30 years ago. Their forecasts were overtaken by events.

Where do we go from here? I guess that's the question. 

Comments

  1. LorneNovember 27, 2021 at 2:14 PM

    Full on till the end, it would seem, Mound. I wish it were otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibNovember 27, 2021 at 5:09 PM

      We show little inclination to change, Lorne.

      If my theory is right and our future depends on developing a willingness to begin living in harmony with nature whether that be on consumption, waste or endless growth, we seem to be writing ourselves off.

      Delete
  2. Northern PoVNovember 28, 2021 at 5:45 AM

    Apparently we were emitting 22B tons of carbon in 1992, the year of the Kyoto Accord. Now it is 34B tons/year.

    So, in the wake of an event where the worlds scientists and politicians finally acknowledged the reality of the science of human caused global heating, we ... increased our poison feed by more than 70%.

    Humanities anthem must be:
    'You gotta fight for your right to party'


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibNovember 28, 2021 at 7:32 AM

      What's that I smell? Is it the faint whiff of madness?

      Sure enough, Abbotsford (according to CBC) got 100mm of rain overnight. No word yet on the runoff from the surrounding mountains but Weather Network has the temp at 12C. EnviroCan predicted this warming, enough to melt the snowpack. That's a trifecta for the Fraser Valley and possibly some of the Lower Mainland municipalities.

      Another 75mm expected today and overnight and then heavy rains return on Tuesday/Wednesday. Then another bout of heavy rains from December 8 to 10.

      I hope they can get their livestock secured and fed.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Up in Smoke. 300 Sq. Mi. of Amazon Rainforest Lost Every Day.

Image
  The Amazon rainforest is disappearing at what should be an alarming rate. 312 sq. mi. or 808 sq. kms. every day. Over the past 30 years humans have destroyed a patch of the Amazon equal in area to the states of Texas and New Mexico . The Amazon – historically a great carbon absorber, since trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen – now releases more carbon than it stores, which adds to, rather helps to reduce, our global climate crisis. Deforestation rates decreased slightly from 2004 to 2012. But since then, they’re back on the rise, especially in the past couple of years, since Jair Bolsonaro became president of Brazil. In 2018, as Bolsonaro campaigned as a patriotic man of the people, scientists predicted that once the Amazon lost more than 25% of its tree cover, it would become a drier ecosystem, all because deforestation changes weather patterns (due to how trees respire), which in turn reduces rainfall. Furthermore, as the forest becomes fragmented, areas surrounded...
Read more

The Cognoscenti Syndrome

  There is a group of people I think of as the Cognoscenti, people who are well educated, very informed and of rapidly diminishing relevance. Their ranks include writers such as Chris Hedges and Glen Greenwald. These are people who have honed an almost Puritanical value system, readily finding fault in any direction. They are scathing in their attacks on Republicans and Democrats alike to the point where they become nihilists. They don't endorse. They prescribe. This is where they fail. They're unable to advocate for anything that might resonate with the public whose interests they argue are being trammeled. Donald Trump was bad but Joe Biden is scarcely better. This is where their elitism comes in.  74 million may have voted for Trump but, hey, they didn't know any better. The mob that stormed the Capitol. They were just victims of the system venting their frustrations. All the racism, bigotry, xenophobia, misogyny, white nationalism - inevitable side effects of their oppr...
Read more

Who Asks "Why?"

Every time there's a conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, all we hear is 'why?'  Why, as in, whose fault is this? It's easier to affix blame if you can truncate the event. Pick a convenient start date, something recent. In this case we'll make it either the Israeli eviction of Arabs from Jerusalem or the scuffle that took place outside the mosque in response. If those don't work, let's go for Hamas launching unguided rockets into Israel. That's even better because it tags Hamas with the blame. The nice thing about this approach is you can just keep using it. It goes on and on, just as it has for the past half-century since the '67 war. You can even date this whole mess to the beginning of the occupation of the Palestinian territories. The Israelis are said to have called these periodic wars, "mowing the lawn." The idea is that, every now and then, you have to take these Arabs to the woodshed. And then you keep your powder dry unt...
Read more