Have a *great* weekend

[ksmith]

I'll be in the corner over there, drinking.

World on track for 6 degree warming, says report

The world is on track to increase average temperatures by six degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100 - three times the target limit set by governments at last year's Bali summit, the International Energy Agency reports.

Know what happens?

+5.4°: Sea levels rise by five metres

The West Antarctic ice sheet breaks up, eventually adding another five metres to global sea levels. If these temperatures are sustained, the entire planet will become ice-free, and sea levels will be 70 metres higher than today. South Asian society collapses due to the disappearance of glaciers in the Himalayas, drying up the Indus river, while in east India and Bangladesh, monsoon floods threaten millions. Super-El Niños spark global weather chaos. Most of humanity begins to seek refuge away from higher temperatures closer to the poles. Tens of millions of refugees force their way into Scandanavia and the British Isles. World food supplies run out

And who made this determination, you ask?

The IEA is the energy counterpart of the OECD, a Paris-based think tank funded by Western governments, including Australia, to advise on energy demand, supply, technologies and policy issues. Its advice is seen as authoritative.

Comments

[rosefox]

That's 92 years from now. No one has any idea what those 92 years are going to look like. For all we know, next year someone could invent a car engine that runs on carbon monoxide and ozone.

I'll wait here while you go back to 1916 and let people know that they should just give up because two world wars and massive economic depression are just around the corner. Make sure you tell black people they won't be considered anything like equal citizens for another fifty years and counting. They should definitely go mope in a corner instead of, I dunno, telling their kids that things look bleak now but someday they might grow up to be president.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

That's 92 years from now. No one has any idea what those 92 years are going to look like. For all we know, next year someone could invent a car engine that runs on carbon monoxide and ozone.

The article caught my attention because of the apparent status of the group issuing the warning. And because it was so damned depressing and immediate. Yes, someone could invent a car that runs on junk and figure out ways to produce electric power from potato chips and swamp gas. It would be wonderful if they did. Hopefully, it would make enough of a difference.

As for the rest or your post? It was uncalled for. Not to mention that the events and issues you cite are all socio-economic in nature and somewhat easier to alter than the weather.

[rosefox]

Actually, I think socioeconomic injustices have been around for much longer than human-related climate change, and have proven awfully stubborn and resistant to change. 92 years ago, the relative positions of Caucasians and non-Caucasians in this society looked as immutable as the sunrise. Meanwhile, the whole reason we're in this global warming pickle is precisely because human beings can change the climate startlingly quickly and dramatically.

But even if that doom and gloom forecast were for next week--keeping in mind that weather prediction is such a faulty science that we can't actually know what weather we'll have next week--we'd still have this week to try and change it. Once you're done drinking in the corner, which you certainly have every right to do but presumably are not planning to do for the next 92 years, I hope you'll fight it instead of accepting and despairing. You never know which of your rock-solid certainties about the future are going to look laughable from a not-too-distant viewpoint.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Once you're done drinking in the corner, which you certainly have every right to do but presumably are not planning to do for the next 92 years,

Or even for the next five minutes because I was joking.

I hope you'll fight it instead of accepting and despairing. You never know which of your rock-solid certainties about the future are going to look laughable from a not-too-distant viewpoint.

They weren't my certainties. They were the extrapolations of a respected organization, which caught me by surprise. So I joked, which I sometimes do in the face of "oh shit". The first paragraph of your initial post opened up what discussion there was to that point. The second paragraph, as far as I'm concerned, closed it because it came out of left field and it wasn't called for. In the future, if I post something that causes you to want to respond in the same way, please stick to the specific point, post in your own blog about the matter, or simply ignore me, because yes, it is all about the tone and my gut response to in-your-face lecturing with a side of sarcasm is 'see ya.'

[rosefox]

Fair enough. I'm sorry my comments were upsetting.