Occasionally an article is published that I call an epiphany, meaning a story with facts and truths one knows but haven't quite put together, and by reading this new perspective the story has the power to change your belief system and maybe your behavior.
This article has that power - it is an assessment of the big picture of what is happening with climate change, and how our lives will be different because of the many ways humans have damaged our planet. By now everyone not in denial about climate change [Republicans] realizes there will be serious problems due to rising sea levels by 2100, 83 years from now, but most people figure "I won't be around then" and don't worry about it.
But as this story from New York Magazine says logically and [to me] persuasively, there will be many major changes long before then, maybe in as little as ten years, and in fact our climate is changing right now in ways that don't register completely, just subliminally. We see a blip on TV news [planes in Phoenix grounded due to heat], then it's gone....
So read this, and think about the following....what's your time horizon? How old are you, and how many active years do you have?
Where do you live? Is your region of the country safe?
An example is South Florida, which is one major hurricane away from a real estate collapse due to the flooding that will follow and people starting to realize they are living in a doomed bubble. And if South Florida goes [say 10 years], it will bankrupt the State so is it a good idea to remain in Florida? And if not, where do you go?
No one can predict the future definitively, but as this story says with the climate trends we can see happening right now, the only discussion is not whether or not our global society is going to collapse, it's when - 10 years, 30, 50 - who knows but within your teenager's lifetime...
So folks - it's time to start thinking....
After reading this I thought I'd get some random headlines from the week's news from Scientific American, Salon, HuffPo and the NYTimes.......and yup, it's in process....
Scores of U.S. Communities Face Frequent Flooding in 18 Years
A trillion-ton iceberg broke off from Antarctica
The Larsen-C iceberg is roughly the size of Delaware, and it broke off of Antarctica
Wildfires After Record Rain Are A Reminder Of Climate Change’s Complicated Consequences
The dozens of wildfires burning in the West are a symptom of our increasingly variable climate.
Era of ‘Biological Annihilation’ Is Underway, Scientists Warn
Climate change movie...
Remember Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"? There is a follow up, and "An Inconvenient Sequel - Truth to Power" movie is coming out July 28th....
Here's the trailer....
However the reviews are tepid....the Guardian gives it a thumbs down....a pity because we need a good movie to get people aware.........
Al Gore knows everybody. He can whip out his cell phone and dial the treasury secretary or the head of a giant solar panel manufacturer and say things such as “I’ll check with President Hollande” or “Elon suggested I call.” It’s amazing, then, that nowhere in his contacts is the number of a documentary film-maker that knows a thing or two about keeping audiences awake.
It’s shocking, really, as the latest entry in the Gore Cinematic Universe couldn’t possibly have more inherent drama. The glaciers are melting, the oceans are boiling, soil is cracked and dry. The planet is facing imminent extinction and only one man has the knowledge, media savvy and political influence to do something. For the love of Gaia, somebody call Michael Bay!
An Inconvenient Sequel, however, is not that type of movie. It’s different from An Inconvenient Truth, the celebrated slideshow-as-cinema documentary that won an Oscar and had a striking impact on education and awareness. The 2006 film was notably dry, consisting mainly of graphs and the former vice president’s meagre attempts at cracking a few dad jokes. But its specificity gave it focus, tightly covering the audience with facts and visual reinforcements, like an atmospheric layer around our potentially doomed planet. Eleven years later, the follow-up – which has many of the same producers but different directors in Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk – is uncomfortably desultory and surprisingly vainglorious. As shocking as it may seem, you may yearn for more of those dreary lectures.
No comments:
Post a Comment