Re: Towards Ecological Catastrophe: 2016

Re: Towards Ecological Catastrophe: 2016 


Thank you for this very interesting item. The question of global
warming is a matter of growing concern but what worries me are
attempts to go into complete denial about it - particularly among 
pro-business commentators. Two arguments seem to be emerging:

One is that it is all exaggerated or that there is no real trend
towards global warming. A notorious recent example is Bob Carter's
article on global warming having stopped in 1998 which I think was
published in one or two right-wing broadsheets in the UK . It
rather selectively used data from the University of East Anglia
climate change monitoring unit. Anyway, here's a good response to
Carter's article
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2006/05/the_perils_of_cherry_picking.
php

A second argument is that in the past, the climate was considerably
warmer so what are we all worrying about. That the climate was
warmer in the past is perfectly true but what this overlooks is that
unlike in the past we have a world population exceeding 6 billion a
significant proportion of which are now highly vulnerable to the
consequences of climate change - e.g. low lying areas subject to
rising sea levels , shifting rainbelts affecting agriculture, more
unstable and extreme weather manifestations e.g. hurricane Katrina

We simply cannot afford to be complacent about this anymore


Robin


--- In worldincommon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Citizens of the World
<iwi@...> wrote:
>
> You might like to take a look at this.
>
> Collapse Of Greenland Ice Shield - Consequences
> http://www.countercurrents.org/cc-james080806.htm
> By Dr John James
> 08 August, 2006
>
> The Greenland glaciers that cover the island contain enough water
to raise
> sea level twenty feet, or seven meters. It was once thoughts (and
that was
> only six years ago) that the glaciers would be self-sustaining
even in a
> warming world because of size and so on.
>
> We now know that this is not true. Not only are the edges melting
fast, but
> the surface melt is seeping through the ice to lubricate the
junction
> between the ice and the rock underneath. This is the unexpected
factor that
> has turned scientific attention onto this escalating
problem. . . . .
>