Global Warming is only getting warmed up. I have been posting for years that billions will most likely die and have been voted down about 90% of the time.
The weather we are experiencing is just the start of terrible. Oil industry scientists knew fifty years ago this would happen and even got the numbers and times right. Twenty years ago, I was writing that climate computer modelling was "too conservative," and Global Warming would happen "decades faster" than predicted. And that is what is happening now.
Most people do not have a clue about the science of Global Warming. Today's science is very advanced, but an American scientist, Eunice Foote, documented the underlying cause of today's climate change crisis in 1856.
Today's children will experience the worst of times, and it will go downhill from there.
So, start your gas-powered engines ( including me ) and build more hundred million dollar mansions; get ready for Climate Megeddon. One thing is for sure; humanity will do nothing until it has already happened. Oops, it already is. We spend trillions on weapons, and the world is last on our list.
So far, I am batting a 100 and have zero faith in leaders from China, Russia, North Korea, and many other countries where stupid and greed are the rule of law. But, unfortunately, this is a trademark for many people, as more is never enough.
The world will experience drastic changes and is already in play, like the oceans that act as a natural air conditioning system to keep the climate in check—the Gulf Stream is already slowing down and will have catastrophic effects on our homes. Earth has experienced many events that have changed the world; just because we are humans, we're nothing special and infestations like Plagues to Mother Nature. We will be dealt with accordingly. No made-up invisible man in the sky will save us.
If I remember, we can and could fit everyone on an island, one hundred miles by thirty miles in size and still have 3 feet between us, if I remember? We could care for and feed all of humanity; we won't until forced into it. So many homes are enormous and far too big in rich countries, and we continue to build energy trophy resource-sucking monstrosities that are a testament to greed.
Whatever my drastic predictions are, there will be far fewer of us here in the future. Plagues are only getting started as the world heats up, and we force animals out of their natural habitat exposing us to all sorts of diseases we have no natural immunity to.
Nobody wants to change their lifestyle, from copious meat-eating and many other bad habits we have will kill us off. We have atom bombs to annihilate each other, and as we experience more drastic changes seen and felt now, the pressure to "push the button" grows. If it can happen, it will happen.
We're nothing special, and the Cosmos is littered with dead worlds that believed in do-nothing God's, a superstitious relic of the dark ages And that may be our future, the dark ages fit for troglodytes. We think we can "teach" our way out of this, and it's all a "hoax" to many who are ill-informed and vote down, which is where we may be headed.
Yes and the warming of the atmosphere is just the start of it.
As the Polar Ice-caps melt, they will decrease the salinity of the Oceans, causing either current reversal or stopping the circulation of oceanic currents completely causing all manner of climatic changes and disaster to occur.
For example, IF the Gulf Stream ceases to flow then this may well create the ideal conditions for an Ice Age to occur over the Northern Hemisphere and extend as far down as below the "Dixie Line" or even further it may well have associated with it Storms similar to Cyclone/Hurricanes BUT with dropping temperatures, extremely heavy, previously unheard of snowfalls and conditions that can kill living things within minutes as well if exposed to them.
The salinity imbalances in the Oceans, etc, may well kill off Coral Reefs, countless fish species, crustacean and shell-fish species, etc, etc.
IF such an Ice Age should occur, which is most likely btw, it could between tens of years or hundreds of years or more BEFORE the delicate climatic balance rights itself and the climate returns ton being something similar to pre-Industrial Age times.
I believe today's children will experience world wide famine, because weather patterns will change and be inconsistent and crops will fail as a result. Today's farmlands will experience either droughts or floods with very little in between weather.
When things go to hell, I hope people turn on those who got rich off of destroying the planet, like a repeat of the French revolution.
A part of me wonders if humans will survive at all after another 500 years or so.
Thank, Val, for a well-written, on-target piece. Yes, some huge amount of humanity is going down the drain for sure, because humanity is essentially out of control. And neither you nor I has a solution that we know how to implement. Perhaps the best we can do is try to make sure a few of us survive. But even that may not be possible.
I have no faith in people doing anything to change the trajectory we are on much- not without major uprisings.
Sad but true as well, these "Climate Talks" are imo, little more than chat-fests and Beano type parties so the attendees can pat each other on the back and say that they are doing something when, in alltruth and fact, they are doing S.F.A. ( Sweet Fuck All.)
Only when it’s too late will most wake up, unfortunately.
Remember that the term "woke" which has a bad reputation amoung some at the moment is the past tense of "wake" as in "Wake Up".
@RussRAB It’s all just bullshit in my eyes. “woke”, “critical race theory” I had never even heard of until these recent months. This is to me as mindless as “Fake News” or any stupid nonsense that comes out of the mouth of big chump. It’s mainly to cause a distraction. Maybe it’s just where I am here in Queens, where it’s overwhelmingly anti Trump……but other parts of the country…..
@CuddyCruiser - I've seen a couple Youtube video where someone had a derogatory comment about being woke. I agree with you that it is all BS - culture war nonsense which is just another way the right says 'my way or the highway'. It's the same when people have criticized me when I misspell a word or use improper grammar. I often will ask them if they understood what I was trying to say. The point I tried to make (or that someone else tries to make) is the important part of their communication. Spelling and grammar do have importance (especially in written communication) but it is not an English lessen, and even someone who isn't as well educated can make valid arguments.
@CuddyCruiser - Also, these are terms I havent heard of either until Republicans made them a recent issue. Obviously, many of the people objecting to them don't know what they mean either since their protests are over something that isn't even happening - like Critical Race Theory being taught to schook kids.
The death of billions would seem alarmist, but there is no doubt that human caused climate change is accelerating and human misery will accelerate in kind.