This was on the Newsroom last Sunday. Now the appropriate response to this segment is to sit stunned in front of your television and hope that this was all done for dramatic effect.
However as Mother Jones reported it is mostly all fact, and only a smattering of drama:
All of these things are predicted by the IPCC—I mean, not the permanent darkness thing, I don't think that's meant to be scientific. But yes, as we reported in May this year, Europe faces freshwater shortages; Asia can expect more severe flooding from extreme storms; North America will see increased heat waves and wildfires, which can cause death and damage to ecosystems and property. Especially in poor countries, diminished crop yields will likely lead to increased malnutrition, which already affects nearly 900 million people worldwide.
I know, scary right? Well good you should be scared.
The question is why is it taking us so long to recognize the monster lurking under our beds?
And a big part of that answer is that there has been a well funded concerted effort to make sure that we NEVER see that monster until it is much too late. Well according to evidence before us it is now much too late.
If the Newsroom took some dramatic liberties and we do indeed still have time then we MUST do everything we can to keep those predictions from coming true right now.
And a big part of doing something is to keep oil company purchased Republican politicians out of positions of power. And after this last election that have more power than they have had in six years.
A fact that is bad for everybody who lives on this planet. Which let me remind you, is all of us.
Another fact to keep in mind is that the planet itself will survive our mistakes, It has in fact survived worse.
However we have already lost half of our wildlife in just the last 40 years. And there is no doubt that if we continue on in this way, that we are next.
We've got barely 50 years to wrest control of our world governments from the hands of the neo-cons and religious fanatics or yes, it is game over, for our kids. The Earth will be just fine without us, after a few thousand years to throw off our remains.
ReplyDeleteThe neo-con Republicans fully believe that humans will be living in space colonies by then. But at the same time, they allow the religious ideologues to underfund NASA and science/technology education.
We have the technology to totally change our energy structure and clean up our toxic messes. Economy has NOTHING to do with it. It has everything to do with greed and political will.
...the voting fundamental "terrorist" Repubs could care less about the environment because it is the sign of The End Times and al that rubbish they have been fed.
DeleteThey don't watch The Newsroom, and won't listen to "Liberal Lies" of the threat we all face, but yearn for the end. How do we combat such battiness?
Just think, the United States that we grew up in, the one that put a man on the moon and approached everything in a spirit of "Yankee ingenuity", that pulled together as one united country, everyone sacrificing convenience for the greater good of all in World war II, that lived by "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" during the Depression and World War I, yes that United States, could be the world leader in preparing for and coping with climate change.
ReplyDeleteOur leadership could be at the forefront of global efforts to deal with climate change. We could demonstrate the best ways to not only protect the earth, but open up opportunities across the globe for entrepreneurs, businesses, and governments to grow their local economies with efforts to create new building and design standards as well as creative new zoning standards, with appropriate tax and economic incentives for modernizing processes to adapt to changing conditions.
But nooooo. The United States is now run by a toxic combination of parasitic corporatists and one percenters allied with the moronic sheep so blinded by hatred, fear, anger, ignorance, and stupidity that they blindly act against their own interests every time to aid the one percenters in their greed for more more and more, willing agents to their own destruction.
Our lazy corporations could have shrewdly looked into the future and put the same efforts into developing functional alternative energy and transportation as they did in developing the incredibly inefficient internal combustion engine. But instead, they put all their efforts into keeping the status quo.
Which is really stupid, because the status quo is an illusion. Things always change. they never remain the same.
Our only options are to control whether the changes will be positive or negative.
Sadly, right now, greed, stupidity, and laziness are controlling the direction of change.
The United States will be left behind. Other countries will develop ways to cope as best as possible with the effects of climate change and their task will be made more difficult by the vast geography of the US and its effects on global climate. The US will suffer hugely from the violent weather extremes of climate change and that will be the end of us as any kind of global power.
A large part of our problem is overpopulation and until Zero Population Growth is a reality people in all countries will be experiencing the deadly reality of hunger, exacerbated by the new reality of food shortages due to the effects of global climate change.
ReplyDeleteZero population growth was a big thing in the 1970s, when the public began to be aware of the damage we were doing to this planet. It was actually quite a popular thought until the child-centric 80s, when having kids became a sort of status symbol, and in some cases, a fashion accessory. I once read an article that claimed big business realized that there would soon be a shortage of new little consumers, and the media started to push large families with cute kids, adorably neat baby items, etc., all to counteract the ZPG movement, I'm probably greatly oversimplifying it, but I remember the article well (though I don't have the title; think it was in New York Magazine). It shocked this very naive college grad to think the media could manipulate popular opinions that way. Oh,sweet jeebus on a saltine, how I've LEARNED!!
DeleteCarpe diem -- this is as good as it gets.
ReplyDeleteI took an "Oceans and Climate" class in college in 2003; there was an Excel chart chart which showed the amount of normal CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and then the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere in 2003. A question was "How long would it take to reduce CO2 to the 'normal' level?" By manipulating one factor in the Excel formula, it was found that by eliminating ALL carbon emissions (CO, CO2, etc.) it would take 500 years to reduce CO2 to "normal". When I pointed this out in another Environmental Studies class, even the lecturing professor declined to believe the figures. I referred him to the other professor, but I have no hope that he ever talked to her.
ReplyDeleteMy poor children--to never know the Earth as the wonderful place that we inherited, and how badly we have betrayed humanity.
Don't worry. I'm sure Jesus will save the day for those who give cash donations at church on Sundays.
ReplyDeleteThe Newsroom is back?
ReplyDeleteDamn. I need to go find an online source.