Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Climate Change Denial: The Tipping Point?


We have yet to comment on Climate Change, and a few Climate Change Deniers may finally see the light as a new report from the Climate Desk at The Atlantic by Tim McDonnell, "We're Screwed: 11,000 Years' Worth of Climate Data Prove It," pounds the final nail into the deniers' coffin:

"New research takes the deepest dive ever into historic climate records.
"Back in 1999 Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann released the climate change movement's most potent symbol: The 'hockey stick,' a line graph of global temperature over the last 1,500 years that shows an unmistakable, massive uptick in the twentieth century when humans began to dump large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It's among the most compelling bits of proof out there that human beings are behind global warming, and as such has become a target on Mann's back for climate denialists looking to draw a bead on scientists.



"'What we found is that temperatures increased in the last hundred years as much as they had cooled in the last six or seven thousand,' he said. 'In other words, the rate of change is much greater than anything we've seen in the whole Holocene,' referring to the current geologic time period, which began around 11,500 years ago.


"'There's been a lot of work that's gone into the calibrations, so we can be dead certain [the shells] are recording the temperature we think they're recording,' he said.


"Mann himself, who literally wrote the book on attacks on climate scientists, said in an email to Climate Desk that he was 'certain that professional climate change deniers will attack the study and the authors, in an effort to discredit this important work,' especially given the close ties between the two scientists' research. 'It will therefore be looked at as a threat to vested interests who continue to deny that human-changed climate change is a reality.'

"Marcott admitted he was apprehensive about charging into the fully-mobilized troll army, but said he was grateful scientists like Mann had 'gone through hell' before him to build a support network for harassed climate scientists.

"'When Michael came along there was a lot more skepticism about global warming, but the public has come a long way,' he said. 'I'm curious to see how the skeptics are going to take this paper.'"

The opponents of Climate Change, both the Conservative Sheeplets and their political leaders, have been especially vocal about denying that change has even occured - or if it has, that it has occured because of "natural causes" such as volcano eruptions, ocean currents, earth orbital changes, or solar variations.  But their violent reaction to the fact that the earth may have even reached the "tipping point" of no return is because Climate Change is due to human factors, causes that can be laid on the feet of big business in its rush for profits, no matter what the cause is to humankind...from's take on the causes of Climate Change:

"Human Causes of Climate Change
"It has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the climate is changing due to man-made greenhouse gases. We are already committed to future substantial change over the next 30 years and change is likely to accelerate over the rest of the 21st century.
"The Met Office, Hadley Centre, UK
"The Hadley Centre holds an unique position in the world of climate science. No other single body has a comparable breadth of climate change science and modelling, or has made the same contribution to global climate science and current knowledge."
"Independent Review 2007
"The Royal Society 2010
"The Industrial Revolution in the 19th century saw the large-scale use of fossil fuels for industrial activities. Fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas supply most of the energy needed to run vehicles, generate electricity for industries and households. The energy sector is responsible for about ¾ of the carbon dioxide emissions, 1/5 of the methane emissions and a large quantity of nitrous oxide.

"Carbon dioxide is undoubtedly, the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Changes in land use pattern, deforestation, land clearing, agriculture, and other activities have all led to a rise in the emission of carbon dioxide. Methane is another important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. It is released from animals such as dairy cows, goats, pigs, buffaloes, camels, horses and sheep Methane is also emitted during the process of oil drilling, coal mining, leaking gas pipelines, landfills and waste dumps.

"The certainty of global warming can be seen through some of the natural phenomenon like the effect on crops and extreme weather conditions around the world. It is especially clear in the dramatic change of the polar caps, i.e. the Arctic ice cap is shrinking and the Antarctica ice shelf is melting.

"Main Contributors and Causes of Climate Change
"According to the UK Government the main contributors of man made causes of climate change in the UK are:
"* 4% of carbon emissions come from industrial processes
"* 7% come from agriculture – for example methane emissions from livestock and manure, and nitrous oxide emissions from chemical fertilisers
"21% carbon emissions from transport

"65% come from the use of fuel to generate energy (excluding transport)
"About 40% of carbon emissions in the UK are the result of decisions taken directly by individuals. The biggest sources of emissions for most people are likely to be:
"* energy use in the home (the main use is heating)
"* driving a car
"* air travel
"There other elements of people's homes that contribute to climate change indirectly. Everything, from furniture to computers, from clothes to carpets, all use energy when it is produced and transported – and this causes carbon emissions to be released."

What will happen when the general populace finally gets it: not only have the Conservatives' masters, the corporations and multi-corporations caused Climate Change, they have denied it until we reached the tipping point, a delay that might have been put to better use by preventing said tipping point.  Did this delay lead to the end of the world, or did it "merely" lead to worldwide famine, disease, and death?

Will the Climate Change deniers and their benefactors and spokesman be run down on the streets and hung from the lampposts for causing, then denying Climate Change?  Even after  Conservatism is finally criminalized, we may be powerless to stop the People from exacting their revenge from the corporate officers and their shills.


"If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry."

Anton Chekhov