Going about Climate Change the wrong way.
Before anyone gets me wrong, let me make this absolutely clear.
I wholeheartedly believe there is Climate Change happening. What I do not believe is that we can in any way do anything to stop it.
People will think my ever optimistic outlook is lacking in this post and on the surface that maybe true. In fact this post is not about stopping Climate Change so much as preparing ourselves for its onslaught. If we do nothing to ready ourselves now, more people will die and be displaced than needs be.
In one vain, reducing emissions is a reasonable thing to work on as it gives people hope. But the other thing we need to bring into a public debate is who on the planet is to be sacrificed because there will be deaths. Plenty of them.
We can spend billions on trying to reduce emissions and smile when we look in the mirror, or we can spend those billions getting ready for the inevitable.
The poles are shifting. No amount of tree planting is going to stop that. It’s happened in the past, and it will happen again in the future.
Places that we now consider tropical, may soon not be. Places we consider dry, may soon not be. And places we consider wet, may soon not be.
Climate will shift. With it so do we. Regions that once were suited for wheat may no longer be suited for that crop. Likewise with rice. Deserts may become no longer so. And fertile plains may become deserts. People will be on the move. It will be hotter in summer and cooler in winter.
Get used to it.
We need to start considering for this possibility as much as we are starting to consider a reduction in carbon emissions. We need to be aware that if we fail to right this, we must be ready to survive.
Now even in this figure above we see the ice shift in the Arctic. The percentage of old ice has dropped from a peak of 60% in the late eighties to the well below 20% this year. You can also see the newer ice is more susceptible to melting in the summer months. This cold water moves into the seas and oceans and creates changes in the pockets of hot and cold in our weather patterns. It also affects rain patterns. There has been a greater drop in old ice since we started to be more climate away and many of us make small changes. The truth is then, this is not working.
Will making greater changes work better? Maybe. Maybe not.
Are we ready for either? The point is it’s nice to give people hope. But false hope is neither here or there. There are so many whales the greens can save here. Yet it is just as humane to face the worse case scenarios as much as we talk about best case scenarios.
Now one other thing to note is this occured earlier this year.
What the effect of this will have on climate change is yet to be seen. I don’t see it being very positive.
I know what you are thinking. The Antarctic is still okay right? Wrong.
So when the Greens try and say a cut in carbon emissions will help, I say maybe. But it’s also time to prepare if it does not. When countries can no longer feed themselves, they start sizing up other countries that can with a tinge of green too.
Sure prepare for emission reductions. But also prepare if emission reductions fail.
Before it’s too late.
But relax.
I could be wrong.
I could be right.
A. Ghebranious 2010 All Rights Reserved.
Ash's Machiavellian Bloggery 
Did not the discontinous of flurocarbons reverse the hole in the ozone layer in the last couple of decades. We have upset the balance of nature that has led to rapid climate change, unlike what has occurred since time began. Surely reversing what we have done, will in time reverse the damage. Remember it is climate we are talking about, not weather. The use of coal belongs in the dark ages. It use has caused illness and death ever since it has been used.
Key to all things global (climate change / warming etc) is the carbon cycle. using fossil fuels uses carbon. That oil/gas form of carbon took millions of years to generate, and cannot be replaced quickly. As we use it, there is no way we can replace it fast enough. Sustainable and renewable energy sources (even if based on carbon) are the only way fwd.
This is why ethanol is OK, as the cycle to make ethanol is magnitudes faster than oil generation. Granted, there is the issue of land clearing etc, but using ethanol as only a part of the whole sustainable, renewable sourcing is a way fwd.
Nuclear, while OK as a non carbon based energy source, is not sustainable or renewable, so ‘long term’ (meaning hundreds of yrs) it has a problem. Could be used for short term fill, but still problematic in its health effects/dangers.
Any carbon expelled to the atmosphere will contribute to warming unless it is captured (by plants) and converted into plant/organic life (another form of ‘fuel’). The rate of capture is not fast enough.
Any ‘carbon sequestering’ technology that doesnot convert the carbon into something useable (i.e. fuel, food etc) is a waste of time/effort.
Just my 2 cents.