Gulf Stream Breakdown
Be afraid, be very afraid. The latest Time Magazine issue dated April 3rd, 2006, which may not yet have hit the newstands, is warning that the unthinkable is unfolding; the breakdown of the Gulf Stream. Here in abridged format is my friend Mike's letter to various news outlets. The link to a suppressed Pentagon report on the subject is at the end.
In November 2003, the Pentagon issued a report on the national security threat of Climate Change presciently subtitled "Imagining the Unthinkable". This report was received by environmentalists with a kind of perverse relief: finally the Pentagon and the Sierra Club were singing from the same song-sheet! This encouragement was only partly dimmed by the fact that the military chiefs buried the report for four months. Surely, the logic went, the reason for hiding the report was that the White House would need to act on it if it became public. Well whatever elation there was faded fast.
Remember the Bush, Kerry presidential campaign? That Pentagon report was custom-made to attack Bush’s inaction on climate change, but I never heard it mentioned. Climate Change got the smallest of references and Kyoto got even less. Either nobody read the report or Americans have short memories.
The report itself is a cold-blooded description of the devastation that will flow from "abrupt climate change", and the self-interested defensive actions the US will take to keep the worst at bay. A typical quote reads: "As abrupt climate change lowers the world’s carrying capacity aggressive wars are likely to be fought over food, water, and energy. Deaths from war as well as starvation and disease will decrease population size, which overtime, will re-balance with carrying capacity." (Page 15)
The writers of this report had every reason to claim Climate Change was less serious than it is, as they knew that is what Bush wanted to hear. That they had the courage to write the disturbing truth about what they saw is testament to the conclusiveness of the evidence. This was the paper the environmental movement could not write – they could never achieve this level of credibility: it had to come from the belly of the beast.
So if it is so believable, what else does it actually say? Well the key thing we should be watching for, the necessary prerequisite of the looming climate disaster, is the breakdown of the Gulf Stream. The melting of vast amounts of Arctic and Greenland ice and the consequent desalination of the North Atlantic would cause this. They describe the science in some detail and predict the collapse of the Gulf Stream between 2010 and 2020.
Be that as it may, we must have thought that was far enough off to put it right out of our heads, because when it actually began to happen last November, there was barely a notice. In late 2005 scientists announced that the Gulf Stream had diminished for the first time since measurement began in 1957. It had dropped by a surprising 30%. The preannounced harbinger of probably the greatest natural disaster humanity will ever face was almost totally ignored, and five months later we still do not seem to have connected the event with the prediction.
If we want to continue in the age of climate stability we have come to know, we will need to quickly and drastically reduce our fossil fuel use. This will be difficult and cause much suffering, however if we consider the alternative it is the only rational choice. Think how it will look to future generations: As they suffer unending climate degradation they will legitimately ask, "Couldn’t the citizens of the 21st Century have reduced their fossil fuel use for a few decades to regain a stable climate for the whole of humanity’s foreseeable future?" If we continue, as a species, on the lethargic track we are now on for fighting climate change, future generations will know us as the most self-centred generation the world has ever known. We know we will only get one chance. We know what is needed to avoid this disaster, and we are not doing it.
In recent months a few voices are beginning to be heard outside the environmental movement, especially inside the United States. Some Evangelicals are offering to help fight the cataclysm. Time Magazine has a front-page story that should convince any reader that action is needed; even ABC and the Houston Chronicle are getting onside. However, the action is needed right now -- we can afford no further delay.
Stopping climate change will require a total world mobilization. Think second world war, think the Great Wall of China. But we won’t do it without the Americans. They are responsible for the greatest share of the problem and they have the greatest resources to fight it. We need their strength of character and can-do spirit to lead the way.
George Bush must be confronted so strongly that he can no longer stand in the way of Global Recovery. The rest of the world knows that Americans must carry this fight to the White House. We are already banging the drum -- we need you to join us. The leadership of your country is just a few individuals and you are a agazine) are agreat nation. The future of our planet depends on your response. We pray it is not too late.
In November 2003, the Pentagon issued a report on the national security threat of Climate Change presciently subtitled "Imagining the Unthinkable". This report was received by environmentalists with a kind of perverse relief: finally the Pentagon and the Sierra Club were singing from the same song-sheet! This encouragement was only partly dimmed by the fact that the military chiefs buried the report for four months. Surely, the logic went, the reason for hiding the report was that the White House would need to act on it if it became public. Well whatever elation there was faded fast.
Remember the Bush, Kerry presidential campaign? That Pentagon report was custom-made to attack Bush’s inaction on climate change, but I never heard it mentioned. Climate Change got the smallest of references and Kyoto got even less. Either nobody read the report or Americans have short memories.
The report itself is a cold-blooded description of the devastation that will flow from "abrupt climate change", and the self-interested defensive actions the US will take to keep the worst at bay. A typical quote reads: "As abrupt climate change lowers the world’s carrying capacity aggressive wars are likely to be fought over food, water, and energy. Deaths from war as well as starvation and disease will decrease population size, which overtime, will re-balance with carrying capacity." (Page 15)
The writers of this report had every reason to claim Climate Change was less serious than it is, as they knew that is what Bush wanted to hear. That they had the courage to write the disturbing truth about what they saw is testament to the conclusiveness of the evidence. This was the paper the environmental movement could not write – they could never achieve this level of credibility: it had to come from the belly of the beast.
So if it is so believable, what else does it actually say? Well the key thing we should be watching for, the necessary prerequisite of the looming climate disaster, is the breakdown of the Gulf Stream. The melting of vast amounts of Arctic and Greenland ice and the consequent desalination of the North Atlantic would cause this. They describe the science in some detail and predict the collapse of the Gulf Stream between 2010 and 2020.
Be that as it may, we must have thought that was far enough off to put it right out of our heads, because when it actually began to happen last November, there was barely a notice. In late 2005 scientists announced that the Gulf Stream had diminished for the first time since measurement began in 1957. It had dropped by a surprising 30%. The preannounced harbinger of probably the greatest natural disaster humanity will ever face was almost totally ignored, and five months later we still do not seem to have connected the event with the prediction.
If we want to continue in the age of climate stability we have come to know, we will need to quickly and drastically reduce our fossil fuel use. This will be difficult and cause much suffering, however if we consider the alternative it is the only rational choice. Think how it will look to future generations: As they suffer unending climate degradation they will legitimately ask, "Couldn’t the citizens of the 21st Century have reduced their fossil fuel use for a few decades to regain a stable climate for the whole of humanity’s foreseeable future?" If we continue, as a species, on the lethargic track we are now on for fighting climate change, future generations will know us as the most self-centred generation the world has ever known. We know we will only get one chance. We know what is needed to avoid this disaster, and we are not doing it.
In recent months a few voices are beginning to be heard outside the environmental movement, especially inside the United States. Some Evangelicals are offering to help fight the cataclysm. Time Magazine has a front-page story that should convince any reader that action is needed; even ABC and the Houston Chronicle are getting onside. However, the action is needed right now -- we can afford no further delay.
Stopping climate change will require a total world mobilization. Think second world war, think the Great Wall of China. But we won’t do it without the Americans. They are responsible for the greatest share of the problem and they have the greatest resources to fight it. We need their strength of character and can-do spirit to lead the way.
George Bush must be confronted so strongly that he can no longer stand in the way of Global Recovery. The rest of the world knows that Americans must carry this fight to the White House. We are already banging the drum -- we need you to join us. The leadership of your country is just a few individuals and you are a agazine) are agreat nation. The future of our planet depends on your response. We pray it is not too late.
Source; Mike Drainie
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html
posted by Colin Old at
4:10 PM
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