My fear is that a critical mass has been reached in the US, of politicians, the wealthy, and the stupid (some people fit all 3 categories), which will prevent us from taking the steps we urgently need to take as a nation to stave off this climate crisis.
Everything we have done thus far (which ain't much, frankly), has been illustrative of the "too little, too late" notion. It is not patently obvious yet, because climate alteration has not yet reached the state where ignoring it as a real threat will become impossible. Overpopulation, resource depletion, scarcity of fossil fuel for transportation, and crop failures will all begin piling on top of the climatic chaos, making it even more difficult to deal with the end of Industrial Civilization and transition to a more sustainable course. Any of these issues ALONE could easily drive large-scale resource wars into global conflict and possible nuclear exchanges. Add to that apocalyptic brew the socio-economic storm climate change will engender, and it's hard for me to see how any large numbers of humanity will survive the famine, war, floods, storms, and hellish desertification of large areas of the planet. This century is going to be a really ugly one, once it gets going. Let's hope mankind can muster the collective will to survive that and the thousand years (or more) of suffering which will follow. . .
Some might notice I'm not overly optimistic of the long-term future viability of our species, bent as it is on collective suicide.
My fear is that a critical mass has been reached in the US, of politicians, the wealthy, and the stupid (some people fit all 3 categories), which will prevent us from taking the steps we urgently need to take as a nation to stave off this climate crisis.
Everything we have done thus far (which ain't much, frankly), has been illustrative of the "too little, too late" notion. It is not patently obvious yet, because climate alteration has not yet reached the state where ignoring it as a real threat will become impossible. Overpopulation, resource depletion, scarcity of fossil fuel for transportation, and crop failures will all begin piling on top of the climatic chaos, making it even more difficult to deal with the end of Industrial Civilization and transition to a more sustainable course. Any of these issues ALONE could easily drive large-scale resource wars into global conflict and possible nuclear exchanges. Add to that apocalyptic brew the socio-economic storm climate change will engender, and it's hard for me to see how any large numbers of humanity will survive the famine, war, floods, storms, and hellish desertification of large areas of the planet. This century is going to be a really ugly one, once it gets going. Let's hope mankind can muster the collective will to survive that and the thousand years (or more) of suffering which will follow. . .
Some might notice I'm not overly optimistic of the long-term future viability of our species, bent as it is on collective suicide.