about climate change is because the results are seen in various regions and not all over the world.

There are a lot of people who will never even read about this and if they do it will be seen merely as a problem in Maine and decide that it is nothing to worry about.

Even when the droughts in CA effect our food prices we do not see it as a world wide problem. Even when refugees from Syria and the drought over there flee to Europe we do not see it as a climate problem.

I wonder what it is going to take to make us look at the world as a place all of us live in and where what hurts one part is also effecting all of the rest of us?

Our polar bears and other northern species are quitting.

we see it as a world problem. We need to wake up.

Off of Barrow yesterday?

May 2nd seems really early for open water at Barrow.

The Chena River in Fairbanks hasn't frozen enough in a few years to go across the Ice Bridge. We don't get "bragging rights" anymore (that comes at 45 or more below).

where big chunks of the year was completely dark!

They thought that species of redwood (metasequoia) were extinct until they found a small area where they were still alive and growing- in the middle of China!

....Florida keys are dissolving and the Great Barrier Reef is almost dead.
I think the reason governments are not doing anything is they know we are doomed sort of like the asteroid movies. We are well and goodly fucked. I'm glad my mom probably won't live to see the worst of it and I have no kids. But my poor nieces. I have to appoligize to them again.

Fuck the GOP and their corporations and billionaires preventing real action. They are traitors to humanity and like on earth.

the world we all better pay attention.

do not see the world threat.

lifestyle that going green and sustainable require. Don't blame them, I don't want to either, but if we want to avoid something much worse we better!

20 years, tops...

http://guymcpherson.com/climate-chaos/see-how-far-weve-come/

Time to climb down from the dark clouds.

It's bad, but it isn't that bad.

...breaks down. And there are still nuclear weapons in the mix when shit hits the fan.

What do you mean by "civilization breaks down"? Are we talking Book of Eli? Interstellar? The Postman or Alas Babylon?

Civilizations have existed just fine in harsh climate conditions. I could certainly see our current civilization evolving to a markedly different civilization, but a worldwide zombie/environmental apocalypse is just fodder for survivalists and doom-and-gloomers who need a broader reading list.

The shit hits the fan pretty often, and past experience tells us that we will deal with it, sometimes good, sometimes poorly, but we will deal with it.

These SHTF people are deranged. They believe all the craziest stuff, it's fun to make fun of the them, they take themselves so seriously. It's takes a certain kind of sick mind to wish for apocolipse and an even sicker one to think you can thrive in such an event. I mean it's a good idea to always be prepared, but stay in your lane. The president is not evil, they hate Obama with passion.
Better to wish for a better world. To prepare for a better world. Instead of hording how. Out you get rid of all the stuff you don't need. Then you have less to worry about.
I can tell you that a man would go down fighting rather than hide in a rat hole.

nobody but the left-behind whacks think it will be a good thing and ain't nobody gonna "thrive." Anyone who thinks he will is due for a rude awakening.

"Stay in your lane." What the fuck does that mean?
"Wish for a better world"? Srsly?

We are well into a sixth extinction event. It's not the harsh climate but the dramatic rate of change that will take us down. Read up on the Sea Peoples at the end of the bronze age for one example of how things can spin out of control after just a few things go wrong.

We have no idea what is in store for us. Just that it will come sooner than we expect and IT WILL BE BAD.

In a globally industrialized world, no nation is an island unto itself. When one nation's crops fail, neighboring nations see waves of hungry refugees streaming over their borders. Or, they see that failed state get overrun by fanatics that vilify those who still have resources and promise their people a better life if only they'd attack the haves. Then you have wars, terrorist attacks, economic collapse and a massive loss of life.

Just look to places like Syria, Yemen or Somalia to get a glimpse of what happens when you have too many people, with too few resources, and access to highly advanced weapons. How human civilization fared in previous shit-hit-the-fan situations has little bearing on how we will fair in the 21st century. There are no unexplored continents left to send excess humanity to, no nations to flee to Irish-potato-famine style.

And as the poster above me pointed out, all this in the midst of the largest mass extinction event since the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Good luck.

Our children - the sons of man, will survive.

...the lines of 'soilent green' actually as the oceans become unable to support the world food supply. The breakdown of the food chain in the plankton is already serious in places and fisheries are spent due to that and pollution and over fishing.

But the veneer of civilization is very, very thin. It will not take much of a widespread disruption to cause complete collapse of the existing infrastructure, you know, that infrastructure we cannot be bothered to maintain.

All it would take would be something to damage the water main feeding NYC and the city would collapse very quickly. 9 million toilets need a LOT of water to function, and when they stop functioning, conditions become dire very quickly. Then there's the Indian Point nuclear power plant. A Sandy-like hurricane that decides to hang around for a few days could cause a Fukushima like event, which means clearing out NYC. Where would we put those people? How would the world economy react to the closing of the financial capitol of the world.

Then there are all those dams all over the country in need of repairs that would cause all sorts of calamity if they fail. And it's not just the U.S. how would the EU deal with this type of disaster:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threat_of_the_Dnieper_reservoirs

If they think they have a refugee problem now, what would they do about the millions who would pour over their borders to get way from this?

It doesn't take many catastrophic failures of this type before the wheels start coming of the civilization bus.

and where lots and lots of people die.

in 2006 when a blizzard--essentially a big ONE-DAY event--hit the Denver area a few days before Christmas. DoT had the equipment to plow the main arteries--eventually--but even so a mere 24-hour interruption in deliveries resulted in bare shelves at the supermarkets. One day!

when places not used to certain types of weather get clobbered with surprises, say a blizzard in South Carolina, or stalled hurricanes dumping 5000 year floods in NYC. Or, what happens when Oklahoma fracks themselves into a 6+ earthquake?

at dozens- or more- nuclear power plants at the same time, followed by a similar number of serious meltdowns - all at the same time.

Evidently we just missed having this happen in 2012.

including one upstream of a Fukushima type reactor. You look at the effects of losing several reactors from the grid at once in mid-Summer or Winter, and you have a potential cascade of failures that take down the grid up the Eastern seabord.

And we worry about terrorism...

these are the things we should really be worrying about.

Chernobyl brought down the ex-USSR you know.

I hate to say it but they're almost all Hillary supporters here...

Yes I know - it's the same people who cover their eyes and ears about most things.

But it's just a fraction of what's coming.

Read all of the long article.

Here's a short one that might be easier for folks to read.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/28443-smoke-and-mirrors-will-not-save-us-from-acd

at least we can rely on Truthout to report truthfully and extensively, particularly with Dahr Jamail in the fold...

Has been a journalist hero for me since I first heard him reporting about the atrocities in Mosul back in 2004!

Like Truthout too.

to you, 2naSalit...may you be ever vigilant in seeking reason and truth.

We're way beyond fucked. I think the shit is going to hit the fan harder, and more rapidly than anyone is saying publicly...

We as a race have abused the planet so much that the forces that we did not understand are taking place, and Humans, as the dominant species shall be replaced by some other species.
Another great extinction is already under way. We will not be able to stop it no matter what we do.
I give us 30 years, and things will break down.

Either WW3 or climate change is going to do it.

But civilization could "evolve" or "break badly", take your pick.

Climate change, Peak oil, there are some factors that could cause national boundaries, treaties, etc to fall apart.

I doubt the Earth can sustain seven, eight, ten billion people. A reduction will happen, and it will be as big a shock as the plague in the middle ages.

that once the reaction that is implementing climate change has started, which it has, there will be no stopping it. The earth will no longer be able to sustain human life.

Burn all the oil we want, go ahead and harvest the elephant ivory, rhino tusk. And stop recycling. It's all pointless.

I happily ignore your prophecy of doom.

And, if we're going extinct anyway, my ignorance is of no consequence.

Party on.

or stop the process, but we have to act NOW. As I see no action on this in the near future, I guess it is all over. I will continue to conserve though, on the hope that there is, and to set an example for others.

Your handle says it all.
I'm off to the Antelope Freeway, to see Nick Danger.

... then I won't buy any ivory, or get the Hummer I've been eyeballing.

And, I guess I'll vote in November, just in case. I'd hate to see people survive the apocalypse, just to be led by Trump.

Cheers.

Given the recent breakdown of the jet stream and the consequent spread of extreme weather events (storms, floods, fires, and droughts) around the globe, this scenario seems realistic in the short term.

The world would likely recover from it, with some difficulty. However, keep in mind that with ongoing climate change and weather destabilization these shocks are unlikely to be one-off occurrences. The question is how many of these shocks the world could withstand in rapid succession before international trade and order break down entirely. I think such a multi-shock situation is plausible within the next two decades.

If Lloyd's is looking at it, you know they're very concerned. and they're not bloggers. They have a multi-billion dollar business to run, and lackadaisical preparations would be catastrophic for them (not to mention their clients, who in the end is us..

I remember seeing my first Jeremy Jackson video lecture a number of years ago, and feeling sick to my stomach for days afterward.

Between over-fishing, over-heating, acidification, eutrophication, de-oxygenation and plastic trash, we have managed to kill the oceans without even noticing. Between that and looming crop failures on land due to rising weather extremes, we're looking at the end of our planet's ability to feed even our current population, let alone another 80 million mouths a year.

Malthus was right - and so were Jacques Cousteau and Norman Borlaug and Dennis Meadows. There are limits, and we are at them.

We're fucked.

I remember in Biology classes they talked about ocean age and health in the color spectrum. I think the darker the worse it is? It has been ages.

silt pouring into the ocean and no shoreline wave & tide action renewing wetlands/adding shoreline