Stock responses to "inaction" talking points on climate change

Why engage? “The thing humans fear more than anything else is the inability to care for our children," says Auden Schendler (*).  Caring would seem to include protecting their home and life support system.

After the primary - which of our U.S. congressional candidates&officeholders support ending the $12b/yr taxpayer subsidies to fossil fuel industry?

Spoiler: Only Reed and a McClintock aide have responded. 

Future sea level rise under inaction today - the big picture looks ugly

David Roberts has a "big picture" post today, Rising sea levels: It’s worse than you think.

What to bequeath those who follow us?

So, if we f*ck around and allow temperature to rise 4.5 degrees C, by 2300 sea levels could be up to 5 meters (16.4 feet) higher and rising at around 13 mm a year. That will be tons of fun to adapt to for all Earth’s creatures, I’m sure.

Here (Source: flood.firetree.net)  is what the Sacramento valley would look like under a 5 meter sea level rise.  Who will be cleaning up the toxic stuff in garages and industrial parks, before they get flooded?  - since the bulk of the damage will come from extreme weather events amplified by the sea level rise.

Mitigation is preventing the problem, like keeping kids from smoking (video).  Adaptation means trying to adjust to living with the problem, like giving smokers an oxygen tank when they develop emphysema.  Or like mandating wider roads, to help drivers escape forest fires.


Failing to decide to act is itself a decision, whose effects fall on the kids, and on their descendants.  They would tell you "it's not fair" - what would you tell them?

David Roberts, "Climate change is simple.."

David Roberts of Grist is the among the top online communicators about climate change - which is why I've added his feed to Nevada County Voices.  Here's his 17-minute TEDx presentation (video, and notes)  "Climate change is simple: We do something or we’re screwed."

Soapbox derby crew accident - life flight helicopter (edited)

The Union's story (Update: it's moved here) has now appeared & has info, including identities.

Record hot spring in contiguous U.S. - crushing old record for "most extreme season".

From Jeff Masters' Wunderblog, here:

Spring 2012 in the contiguous U.S. demolished the old records for hottest spring and most extreme season of any kind, said NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) .... The March - April - May spring season was 5.2°F above average--the largest temperature departure from average of any season on record for the contiguous United States. What's truly remarkable is the margin the old record was broken by--spring 2012 temperatures were a full 1°F above the previous most extreme season, the winter of 1999 - 2000. All-time seasonal temperature records are very difficult to break, and are usually broken by only a tenth of a degree. To see the old record crushed by a full degree is a stunning and unparalleled event in U.S. meteorological history.

Meanwhile, a local paper runs an op-ed from a woman indicating concerns about climate are groundless, only a ruse.  But placing political ideology before climate science makes for poor long-run prioritizing, as another op-ed points out.