From the news: “INCHEON, South Korea — A landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has “no documented historic precedent.”
Naturally, the release of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has prompted another round of useless debate about climate change. Changes in the composition of the earth’s atmosphere, the average temperature of the plant, the reduction of Arctic Sea ice, the thinning of the glaciers in Greenland, the retreat of glaciers elsewhere, and the rise in sea level are all measurable phenomena, but apparently that is not enough to convince some people of the existence, let alone the urgency of the problem.
It does seem ironic that in the United States, the “conservative” position is to defer any possible action as long as possible. Given that it is indisputable that humans are altering the composition of the earth’s atmosphere and that the consequences, while uncertain, are possibly catastrophic and are undoubtedly irreversible, it would seem that the conservative approach would be to act to prevent possible disaster. Isn’t that why we wear seat belts and build tornado shelters?
Rather than deny the ever-accumulating weight of evidence, shouldn’t we recognize that our understanding of the issue is a gift that makes it possible for us to prevent significant harm to ourselves and, more importantly, to our descendants?
Of course, history is littered with examples of warnings that were ignored, so I guess we haven’t learned as much as we might like.
https://listverse.com/2013/10/08/10-deadly-warnings-the-world-ignored/
“The sun was still high, the shadows short before me. I thought, ‘ The man who sleeps on a warning does not deserve one.’ Why wait until tomorrow?”
Quote from The King Must Die, by Mary Renault
News Quote from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html
October 10. 2018