This time they really, really mean it:
Global warming is already having a major impact on life in America, a report by US government scientists has warned. The draft version of the US National Climate Assessment reveals that increasing storm surges, floods, melting glaciers and permafrost, and intensifying droughts are having a profound effect on the lives of Americans.
“Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington state and maple syrup producers have observed changes in their local climate that are outside of their experience,” states the report.
Health services, water supplies, farming and transport are already being strained, the assessment adds. Months after superstorm Sandy battered the east coast, causing billions of dollars of damage, the report concludes that severe weather disruption is going to be commonplace in coming years. Nor do the authors flinch from naming the culprit. “Global warming is due primarily to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels,” it states.
The uncompromising language of the report, and the stark picture that its authors have painted of the likely effects of global warming, have profound implications for the rest of the world.
If the world’s greatest economy is already feeling the strain of global warming, and is fearful of its future impact, then other nations face a very worrying future as temperatures continue to rise as more and more greenhouse gases are pumped into the atmosphere.
“The report makes for sobering reading,” said Professor Chris Rapley, of University College London. “Most people in the UK and US accept human-induced climate change is happening but respond by focusing attention elsewhere. We dismiss the effects of climate change as ‘not here’, ‘not now’, ‘not me’ and ‘not clear’.
“This compelling new assessment by the US experts challenges all four comforting assumptions. The message is clear: now is the time to act!”
Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics, said: “For those outside the US, this report carries a brutal message because it shows that even the world’s leading economy cannot simply adapt to the impacts of climate change. The problem clearly needs concerted international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to avoid the worst potential consequences.”
Don’t look now, but it’s too late to prevent the consequences of all the interrelated problems we’ve caused (by using fossil fuels and overpopulating). Just connect the dots (all the observable data, no spin):
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/#comments
or this:
http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2013/01/11/earth-to-humans-get-off-your-merry-go-round-ride-to-extinction/
But our great and glorious leaders and Powers That Be want to concentrate on Austerity and cutbacks to governmental actions, whether it be for the social safety net or for taking actions which will make the general population better off.
All they want is what they can get for themselves and what will serve to bamboozle the voters temporaily as they do so.
We are so fucked.
So, let me point to President Nobel Peace Prize, who will be damned by future generations as havine done nothing while the world burned. And drowned. And froze unexpectedly from lack of energy which can be used safely. And starved. And died of thirst.
Oh, yes. He will be a “transformative” president, perhaps the last who COULD have done something and did nothing. He will be “on watch” while the world actually transforms into an inhospitable planet for human and other life.
For that his name and lack of actions will live in infamy.
Has he simply no idea of what the effect of his bad words will be, his bad lack of good actions??? Is he so besotted with desire for approval from the PTB and their money that he cannot see what he is doing by doing nothing or next to nothing?
I have to confess to a certain guilty pleasure recently – guilty in I was making fun of the bozo, pleasure in it made me chuckle – when a newcomer to the area and denier went on a rant ore how cold it is. It has been seasonably cold – teens amd twenties with overnights hovering around zero – though not cold we’ve seen in ten or twelve years, but what can you say other than “well yeah, it’s WINTER.