“If you had a satellite view of the planet in the summer, there is about 40 per cent less ice in the Arctic than when Apollo 8 [in 1968] first sent back those photos [of Earth],” Bill McKibben, world renowned environmentalist and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences told Al Jazeera, “Oceans are 30 per cent more acidic than they were 40 years ago. The atmosphere is four per cent more wet than 40 years ago because warm air holds more water than cold air. That means more deluge and downpour in wet areas and more dryness in dry areas. So we’re seeing more destructive mega floods and storms, increasing thunderstorms, and increasing lightning strikes.”
We should have started aggressively reducing carbon emmissions 20 years ago but the climate kooks, cranks and bullies blocked action (along with fossil fuel companies and their politicians). Even now a lot of people refuse to accept the reality of climate change.
I was in a crushingly depressing argument about this on Facebook a couple of weeks ago (yes, I am a huge lame-o who gets into hostile, pointless Facebook arguments). I posted a link to NASA’s climate science page to make the point that mainstream scientific agencies accept the theory of climate change. An invalid point, my Facebook nemesis, Todd, shot back. “What did your link prove or point to…nothing except your feeble appeal to authority. By the way, NASA has been wrong many times in the past, ask Christa McAuliffe.”
This from the jerk (why are so many jerks named Todd?) who’d just posted a link to an ugly-looking blog called “Hold The Mayo” that calls global warming a “pseudo-religion”.
And then other commentators told me “I lose credibility” when I swear at people and call them names.
My authority put people on the moon. Todd’s authority likes bland sandwiches. On the Internet, both authorities have equal weight in an argument. You can’t fucking win. Too many Toga-Todds diddling themselves while Rome burns.
(Thanks to PD Facebook fan Daniel Johnson for the Al Jazeera link.)
