The next decade is going to be wild. We will start to really see the effects of climate change. Real consequences for every day lives in the western world.
Prepare for erratic weather. Storm's coming.
Prepare for erratic weather. Storm's coming.
It’s my opinion that if we give people in the west unrealistic timelines, it will only serve to undermine the political effort to solve the issues for the long term.
That’s for all sorts of reasons, principally economic and geographic.
Why not?
The insurance industries already disagree with you. Trying getting flood insurance in some parts of the UK now. It wouldn't have been a problem thirty years now, now it's impossible.
And try selling a house that can't be insured. But perhaps you don't think losing that kind of capital investment isn't a real consequence for everyday life?
Alarmism is ultimately counterproductive, because the risk is that people will see the gap between their personal experience and the climate prognostications, and decide the whole thing is complete bullshit. So it’s important that we are precise in our communication, and honest about the state of our knowledge.
We face a monumental struggle to deflect the asteroid of climate change by the end of the century, and we need public buy in to do it. Anything that undermines that will magnify the challenge many times, and perhaps even render it impossible.
[0] https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08DAMASCUS847_a.html
[1] https://library.ecc-platform.org/conflicts/turkey-syria-and-...
And they will look at the huddled masses and say; "Dirty foreigners. Why don't they stay where they belong instead of trying to mooch our hard-earned wealth" and build higher walls.
For crying out loud.
The answer to both is that we need to do something different.
And look at what “masks protect other people” accomplished. 40% of the American population gleefully advertising that they don’t care about other people.
You don’t have to change people’s minds if you can change their actions.
Do you think if the US government had said, “we’re going to ask you nicely to take off your shoes at the airport so your neighbor’s grandma doesn’t get blown up?” that would’ve gotten people to take their shoes off?
The timeline for severe consequential effects of climate change are a hundred years away.
Your hysteria only damages the climate change cause, because in 10 years time people will use proclamations such as yours to deny climate science.
As part of 4+ Year process to get my timberland thinned to reduce fire danger (through the state approval process which is terrible, but finally happened), it came up that historically - based on archeological data - fires used to happen in this area every 10 to 15 years. It has been 115 years since a fire happened on the property.
Massive buildup of fuel (due to suppressing small Fires and not allowing cutting or timber harvesting), combined with many people living and using power equipment in an area that historically was thinly populated means massive fires when they do happen. Which is what you saw.