'While Rome Burns', Michael Mann Calls Out Dire Climate Change Inaction
"While Rome (and Most Everywhere Else) Burns, The Trump administration is taking action, but in precisely the wrong direction," By Mel Gurtov, Common Dreams, Aug. 4, 2018.
By now we’re accustomed to learning that every year brings record high temperatures around the world. Extreme weather, says Prof. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, “is the face of climate change. We literally would not have seen these extremes in the absence of climate change.
The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. We are seeing them play out in real time and what is happening this summer is a perfect example of that. We are seeing our predictions come true. As a scientist that is reassuring, but as a citizen of planet Earth, it is very distressing to see that as it means we have not taken the necessary action.”
Ordinary folks, rich and poor, who live in low-lying areas such as port cities and towns on rivers and coastlines, and in certain forested areas, are in increasing danger of losing their homes—and possibly their lives—to floods and fires.
But members of the governing and business elite always have the option to move away from flood and fire zones, not to mention pollution and hurricanes. So where’s their incentive to think ahead and about others’ wellbeing? They need to be called to account!
Climate change, Michael Mann explained, may not be the direct cause of every single weather event. But it raises the risk of disaster by as much as two-fold, and every such disaster adds to the possibility of ecosystem collapse.
Just in the last few months we have more bad news in which climate change plays a part: loss of a near-record 39 million acres of tropical forests in 2017, and a tripling of Antarctic ice sheet lossover the last decade compared with the previous one.
Every world leader who shrinks from directly addressing this situation through public and international policy is, to my mind, guilty of a crime against humanity...
Inaction in such dire circumstances is inexcusable, and should be punishable, on behalf of humanity.
The Trump administration is taking action, but in precisely the wrong direction...
More, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/08/04/while-rome-and-most-everywhere-else-burns
The sky above Soda Bay, Calif. as the River Fire burns on July 30, 2018. (Photo: Bob Schoenherr/flickr/cc)
= new reply since forum marked as read
"Fighting for Science in the Era of Fake News," Penn State News, June 4, 2018.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Michael Mann began his career, he was far more comfortable being in the lab than in the public eye. Over the past 20 years, he’s found his voice and used it to stand up for peer-reviewed science amid attacks from corporations, legislators and the media.
Now more than ever, Mann says it’s critical for scientists and other experts to make their voices heard amid the chaos of "fake news" and research that’s funded to sow doubt about climate change and other issues. Mann discussed his part in the national conversation about climate change and the role of experts in a democracy on the latest episode of the Democracy Works podcast, produced by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy.
“Over time I've come to embrace this role because, in the end, what more noble pursuit could I be engaged in as a scientist than this pursuit to inform the public conversation about what may be the greatest threat we face as a civilization,” Mann said.
Mann is a distinguished professor of atmospheric science and the director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center (ESSC). His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system. He was a lead author on the “Observed Climate Variability and Change” chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001. He contributed, with other IPCC authors, to IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, "Climate Change 2007," for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore.
Mann said there’s power in the scientific community coming together to fight for its work. The power of many voices speaking as one makes it much more difficult for those looking to discredit science to be successful. The same principle applies to democracy, he said, where the power of the collective is stronger than any individual vote.
“I would say ultimately the only real solution is democracy and the democratic process and people getting out and voting,” he said.
https://news.psu.edu/story/524105/2018/06/04/fighting-science-era-fake-news
"Extreme Global Weather Is 'The Face of Climate Change' Says Leading Scientist: EXCLUSIVE: Prof Michael Mann Declares The Impacts of Global Warming Are Now ‘Playing Out In Real-Time,"’ The Guardian, July 27, 2018.
The extreme heatwaves and wildfires wreaking havoc around the globe are “the face of climate change,” one of the world’s leading climate scientists has declared, with the impacts of global warming now “playing out in real time.”
Climate change has long been predicted to increase extreme weather incidents, and scientists are now confident these predictions are coming true. Scientists say the global warming has contributed to the scorching temperatures that have baked the UK and northern Europe for weeks.
The hot spell was made more than twice as likely by climate change, a new analysis found, demonstrating an “unambiguous” link. Extreme weather has struck across Europe, from the Arctic Circle to Greece, and across the world, from North America to Japan.
“This is the face of climate change,” said Prof Michael Mann, at Penn State University, and one the world’s most eminent climate scientists. “We literally would not have seen these extremes in the absence of climate change.”
“The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle,” he told the Guardian. “We are seeing them play out in real time and what is happening this summer is a perfect example of that.”
“We are seeing our predictions come true,” he said. “As a scientist that is reassuring, but as a citizen of planet Earth, it is very distressing to see that as it means we have not taken the necessary action.”...
READ MORE:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/27/extreme-global-weather-climate-change-michael-mann
- Surface Temperature in 2017 and 2018. Source: GISS/NASA
- Surface Temperature in 2017 and 2018. Source: GISS/NASA
That's what it'll take for some wingnuts to wake up. Let's hope Donny is the first example. (Hey, we know he's got the requisite body fat!)
