Diary Of The Last Age

I have been writing and telling people for some time now about the dire consequences of doing nothing about global warming.  I have started a novel, the last chapter of which was going to be hopeful that humanity would survive, albeit bereft of civilization, reduced to something like North America three hundred years ago, tribal groups surrounding the Arctic Circle. In the past year or so, I've been driven to greater positive thoughts.  While it remains true that the American politicians like Oklahoma Senator Inhofe corrupted by oil money continue to prevent any serious actions preventing global warming, there are many other people acting to make a difference in small ways, inventing , developing , distributing, and putting into action alternative energies.  And other people gathering together to talk about what needs to be done.  People are demonstrating .  The United Nations is acting . Local groups around the world are meeting to confront the challenges ...

Extreme weather has already had effects on crops, e.g., wheat in Russia in 2010 and in Australia in 2012, both from lack of rainfall.  And this year olive crops in France , Spain, and Italy .  These events mattered a lot to the farmers affected but had little impact on the world supply of wheat and olives.  But this is only a hint of what will come if nothing is done about global warming.  Extreme weather will have a widespread negative effects on crops.  The Guardian reports that the climate change panel, IPCC, says that "global warming is fueling not only natural disasters, but potentially famine - and war".   If nothing is done, the 8 billion people on this planet fifteen years from now will have less food than we have now for 6 billion people.  There is no other implication we can take from this than that there will be mass starvation. But there's a worse food problem.  It turns out that "the global livestock industry actually produces t...

The NY Times lead article this morning is on the climate talks in Lima.  Their conclusions are grim: they warn that it now may be impossible to prevent the temperature of the planet’s atmosphere from rising by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. According to a large body of scientific research, that is the tipping point at which the world will be locked into a near-term future of drought, food and water shortages, melting ice sheets, shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels and widespread flooding — events that could harm the world’s population and economy. 3.6 degrees would be serious, but the problem is While a breach of the 3.6 degree threshold appears inevitable, scientists say that United Nations negotiators should not give up on their efforts to cut emissions. At stake now, they say, is the difference between a newly unpleasant world and an uninhabitable one. Yes, uninhabitable.  From the start I've made dire predictions about the consequences of global warming, but they are bas...