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melling

“Gotta start somewhere”

We’re about 40 years into “getting started”.

One of the main problems was identified in 1985.

https://youtu.be/Wp-WiNXH6hI

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In 1980, President Carter assembled top scientists in various domains to write a report of the problems we should expect to face in 2000. (If only politicians today were that forward-looking!) It was called the Global 2000 report and was a very thick volume. It does not mention global warming. The closest it comes is discussion of acid rain and of increased "desertification."

What I take from that is that in 1980, while there was some awareness of global warming, few scientists thought it would so quickly accelerate and become the central issue regarding the environment.

[0] Summary of the report: https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/pdf-archive/glob...

The consensus has indeed been forced into extreme caution when it came to dire predictions, there were so many voices accusing scientists of crying wolf. If someone in 1980 would have said that a heat wave would kill a tenth of the number of people it did in 2003, they would have been called dangerous extremists. In this respect nothing has changed, Termination Shock will be mistaken for a piece of history, like Dafoe's journal of the plague year...

1985? It's been known since the 1850s that atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapor contribute to the greenhouse effect.

I didn’t say we discovered the greenhouse effect in 1985.

I said we started addressing the issue about 40 years ago.

Actually, the Carl Sagan video is still worthwhile. He did an excellent job.

>I said we started addressing the issue about 40 years ago.

You said "One of the main problems was identified in 1985".

Yes, the global usage of coal. The fact that if India and China start using a lot of it…. Watch the video

Coal usage is at all time highs: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/coal-burning-capacity...

> We’re about 40 years into “getting started”.

This describes America way too accurately.

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing: after they've tried everything else." — Winston Churchill

I wish I had his confidence.

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