Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Rolling Stone thinks making the world more habitable for humans will kill us off.
Now Is Our Last Best Chance to Confront the Climate Crisis
With Joe Biden in office, a serious plan to combat climate change is finally in our sights — but the clock is ticking, and there is no more room for error
By Jeff Goodell
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
The Earth’s climate has always been a work in progress. In the 4.5 billion years the planet has been spinning around the sun, ice ages have come and gone, interrupted by epochs of intense heat. The highest mountain range in Texas was once an underwater reef. Camels wandered in evergreen forests in the Arctic. Then a few million years later, 400 feet of ice formed over what is now New York City. But amid this geologic mayhem, humans have gotten lucky. For the past 10,000 years, virtually the entire stretch of human civilization, people have lived in what scientists call “a Goldilocks climate” — not too hot, not too cold, just right.
Now, our luck is running out. The industrialized nations of the world are dumping 34 billion tons or so of carbon into the atmosphere every year, which is roughly 10 times faster than Mother Nature ever did on her own, even during past mass extinction events. As a result, global temperatures have risen 1.2 C since we began burning coal, and the past seven years have been the warmest seven years on record. The Earth’s temperature is rising faster today than at any time since the end of the last ice age, 11,300 years ago. We are pushing ourselves out of a Goldilocks climate and into something entirely different — quite literally, a different world than humans have ever lived in before.
…
By all indications, President Biden and his team understand all this. And it’s hard not to feel that after 30 years of dithering and denial and hypocrisy, the fight to save the climate has finally begun in earnest. In the 2020 election, nearly 70 percent of Biden’s voters said climate change was a top issue for them. Biden has staffed his administration with the climate A-team, from Gina McCarthy as domestic climate czar to John Kerry as international climate envoy. He has made racial and environmental justice a top priority. And perhaps most important of all, he sees the climate crisis as an opportunity to reinvent the U.S. economy and create millions of new jobs.
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For more than 30 years now, scientists and politicians have been aware that our hellbent consumption of fossil fuels could push us out of the Goldilocks zone and force humans to live in a world we have never inhabited before. As Biden’s push for climate action gets real, we will learn a lot about how serious human beings are about living on this planet, and how far the powerful and privileged are willing to go to reduce the suffering of the poor and vulnerable. If political leaders don’t take the climate crisis seriously now, with all they know, with all they have been through already, will they ever? “Climate advocates keep saying, ‘This is it, this is it, this is it,’ ” warns Podesta. “But this really is it. If we don’t amp up and accelerate the energy transformation in this decade, we’re goners — really goners.”
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/climate-crisis-2050-goals-biden-administration-1154528/
Why do I claim global warming, if it happens, is making the world more habitable for humans?
Very simple. Try stripping down to your jocks, or a swimsuit if you prefer, and try walking around outside.
On a warm day in Summer you might get away with it. Not so much in winter.
The lower limit of survivability is difficult to pin down, and there are remarkable stories of tribes whose ancestors survived extreme climates without clothes, but most people start to feel cold if they are not wearing clothes, if temperatures drop for a sustained period below 80F / 26C. Even in the near tropical region where I live, winter would be unpleasant without warm clothes.
Our ancestors evolved in the extreme tropics, where the temperature almost never drops below 80F. Our “Goldilocks zone” is a place near the equator, where nobody has to wear clothes to stay warm.
We inhabit vast areas of the planet which are far too cold for us, because our ancestors used their intelligence to figure out how to shield themselves from cold their unprotected bodies would struggle to survive. But somewhere along the way, some of us seem to have forgotten why we needed clothes in the first place.
The idea that a warmer climate would be a problem for humans is absurd. We are one of the most warm weather adapted animals on the planet.
Eric,
Thanks for pointing out that H. sapiens is a tropical species and, like the VAST majority of species, thrives far better in a warmer climate than the current one!
Maybe one of our Three Stooges (Izzy, Roger and griffie-poo) could explain the benefits of living in a climate more akin to an Ice Age than a climate or thermal optimum! I wouldn’t waste my time as I’ve been to Mexico, Hawaii and the Caribbean; and unless I want to go skiing or hunting, a tropical vacation is the way to go!
CO2 to 1,000ppm! It may not help, but what can it hurt?
Readers should be aware [beware]…
“This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.”
That sentence identifies this Rolling Stone piece as propaganda produced by a propaganda cabal centered at Columbia School of Journalism -=- in which the journalists practice collaborative propaganda production on Climate Issue.
In other words, this is the Opposite of Journalism.
These propagandists tell readers what they and their masters want you to know and believe — without regards to the truth or facts.
I covered the birth of this movement earlier.
Kip,
Do you have any idea how much funding they received from the CCP?
The common thread behind so much occurring today seems to the ChiCom’s hopes to gain world hegemony without firing a shot; as they convince the Western democracies to commit economic suicide by going full Greentard! They will have plenty of electricity and the heavy industries that require it, while the US and Europe decline into Second or Third World status!
Ab Man ==> I have no data on involvement of the CCP or any other organization . . . . . other than the Columbia School of Journalism, the Guardian, and NPR and other major mainstream “news” organizations who openly brag of their involvement.
“The industrialized nations of the world are dumping 34 billion tons or so of carbon into the atmosphere every year, which is roughly 10 times faster than Mother Nature ever did on her own”
I’ve heard this before, that the problem is not the quantity, it’s the rate.
The assertion this is a problem is not backed by evidence. According to NASA the world is getting greener.
They best start trying to figure how to stop volcanoes if rate is the problem.
Yes and don’t forget about the termites.
You may have heard bullshit before, but that doesn’t change what it is.
Human CO2 emissions on an annual basis are on the order of 3%-4% of the total. The rest is from natural sources that have nothing to do with human activities. And since they aren’t measuring all of the natural sources and sinks, they don’t know what is causing the atmospheric levels to rise.
Nor do they have a meaningful handle on how much the atmospheric CO2 levels have changed unless you’re talking about only the period since March 1958 when Mauna Loa measurements begin. Comparing those to “proxy” measurements as if they constitute a measurement of the same thing is a scientific incompetence.
“… but most people start to feel cold if they are not wearing clothes, if temperatures drop for a sustained period below 80F / 26C.”
Which says something about the temperatures in which mankind evolved. And the world is supposed to be threatened by temperatures heading back that way?
Face facts. Nobody wants their picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone anymore. Nobody reads about Rock Stars anymore because there are none under 60 that don’t market their own content on social media. So in order to sell magazines, they switched their audience over to those that like to read horror stories instead.
Tying in with CNN?
It’s the naked ape for a reason
How many times did the boy cry wolf before the village people stopped believing him?
2 or 3 maybe?
We’ve listened to the cries of ” the climate wolf is coming” “the climate wolf is coming” for 33 years in a row……….and still no sign of a wolf.
U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not CheckedPETER JAMES SPIELMANNJune 29, 1989
“UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.
Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ″eco- refugees,′ ′ threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP.
He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.
As the warming melts polar icecaps, ocean levels will rise by up to three feet, enough to cover the Maldives and other flat island nations, Brown told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.”
In the made up story of “the boy that cried wolf” there actually was a wolf that came after the village people stopped believing the boy’s yelling about a fake wolf.
In the real life story of the people that cried climate crisis, there is no climate crisis, instead, its turned out to be a climate optimum for life, not despite increasing CO2 but exactly because of it.
Cold still kills 15 times more humans than heat. Cold kills over 200 times more life(especially in the mid/high latitudes) than heat.
The planet is not dying, it’s greening up.
Carbon Dioxide Fertilization Greening Earth
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth
The climate wolf does not exist and never did………………….yet, somehow repeating the same false narratives about the wolf for 33 years in a row using junk/anti science and the influence of brain washing tools via the powerful communication technologies of this age……..and repetition……..has hypnotized people into thinking that a lamb is a wolf.
And we can’t say that its not worked for them because it did! They did it and they won, whether you want to acknowledge that fact or not. The Climate Accord, Green New Deal, carbon taxes and some horrible green energy systems are not just a future possibility. They started imposing it years ago and it is rapidly accelerating, which will continue the next 4 years…………..no matter what the weather/climate does.
They won by getting the political power to impose their agenda and so…………..they are just imposing their agenda. It is already having harmful consequences that will only get much worse but that makes not difference. This was never about science or results or rational energy policies.
It was about getting the power to impose the agenda.
Once the agenda has been imposed………………they will start telling the truth about there being no climate crisis. However, they will use it to claim that the crisis was averted by the agenda and we must keep the political agenda(using climate as a ruse) in place or the crisis(threat) will return.
Hurrah, they saved the planet from the fake climate wolf!
Here’s the link to that story from 1989
https://apnews.com/article/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0
Translation: What follows is pure propaganda. Nothing in it should be confused with truth or actual journalism.
“The industrialized nations of the world are dumping 34 billion tons or so of carbon into the atmosphere every year, which is roughly 10 times faster than Mother Nature ever did on her own, even during past mass extinction events.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t nature cycle through something like 60 gigatons of “carbon” (dioxide) annually?
The only crisis is in the minds of the deluded.
Anyone who calls carbon dioxide ‘carbon’ is lazy, or has an agenda, or is lying
Those three are not mutually exclusive, they often party together.
It is not about controlling the climate, and never has been, it has always been about controlling the populace.
Their soundbite is just another climate call to action sales pitch. As usual, it’s bobbins.
Come on, guys
Rollings Stone magazine is so, so “sciency”..
Didn’t you all know that ! 😉
“Science” for rock stars.. !
From the article: “Now, our luck is running out. The industrialized nations of the world are dumping 34 billion tons or so of carbon [sic] into the atmosphere every year, which is roughly 10 times faster than Mother Nature ever did on her own, even during past mass extinction events. As a result, global temperatures have risen 1.2 C since we began burning coal, and the past seven years have been the warmest seven years on record.”
Let’s go to the satellite chart:
As you can see from the UAH satellite chart, the last seven years have *not* been the warmest on record, and the temperatures have cooled 0.7C since the 2016 highpoint. The temperatures have cooled for five years and CO2 has increased in the atmosphere for those five years, so why are the temperatures not going higher and higher? Possibly because CO2 has little effect on the atmospheric temperatures. CO2 is up, Temperatures are down.
When alarmists panic over the temperatures you know they are looking at the bogus, bastardized, instrument-era, computer-generated Hockey Stick global surface charts which distort the temperature record and make it appear that the temperature trend is “hotter and hotter and hotter”. But it’s not.
Any regional surface temperature chart (unmodified) will show that we are not getting hotter and hotter, rather the climate is cyclical with warm periods and cool periods and in the Earth’s case, the warm periods of the recent past were just as warm as today, so this means we are not experiencing unprecedented warming from CO2 as the alarmists claim.
Here’s the AMO chart which is representative of the temperature profile of all the unmodified regional surface temperature charts. There’s no “hotter and hotter and hotter” here.
When the alarmist wipe the sweat off their brows and complain about the unprecedented warmth, someone should ask them where they get the idea that it is so warm? Dollars to donuts they point at the Hockey Stick chart. It’s the only thing they have to point to for making their case, and it’s bogus as hell.
All regional surface temperature charts put the lie to the bogus Hockey Stick chart. None of the regional charts resemble the “hotter and hotter” Hockey Stick temperature profile, they resemble the profile of the AMO chart above, which shows we have nothing to worry about from CO2.
Google keeps promoting climate emergency stuff on my phone with their news headlines and articles.
Here’s one from just a few moments ago:
“Climate change is causing more frequent and severe flooding, droughts, storms and heatwaves as average global temperatures rise to new records.”
How can we stop these Matter of Fact lies that Google is spuing?
I don’t know that you can stop liars from lying, but, as most of us know, none of the claims about flooding, droughts, or storms or heatwaves, or the average global temperatures at new record highs are true, they are all a bunch of lies, easily disproven and can be disproven using the UN IPCC’s own reports which says there is no evidence of unprecedented weather connected to human beings and CO2.
All the alarmists have are lies and distortions of the truth, and the only thing that keeps them in the game is that they have the Leftwing News Media of the Western world, carrying their untruthful water for them.
Block it on your phone.
This is the Climate Liar’s Last Best Chance to start telling the truth.
Got to quote Frank Zappa on Rock journalists:
Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.
What would anyone expect from a Leftist publication like Rolling Stone? It would be a much bigger surprise if it presented some of the real facts behind the current climate alarmism.
Excellent point, Edward!
What Rolling Stone, a really odd forum for scientific advice, can’t do is a serious look into the science. “Climate” is a made-up word for how the “biosphere” seems to work. “Climate” is not a “thing’ such as a stone or a ton of coal. It is a process of change in the sun, the earth and its biosphere, the interconnections between them. and even influences from unimaginable distances away(cosmic “rays” and other weird effects on us).
Of course this is not a mistake. Rolling Stone was simply one of the chosen outlets for the latest propaganda push. The people at Rolling Stone couldn’t explain what is going on in the climate any better, or worse, than the large number of self-proclaimed experts can.
The whole fiasco has been going on since 1970 when Maurice Strong, a Canadian oil baron, got himself appointed by the United Nations to the new United Nations Environmental Program(UNEP). The United Nations LOVES acronyms! The whole process, thinking, and construction was done specifically with the UN’s goal of becoming the world government. Strong promised an easily controlled an seemingly scientific process.
All the information and results since 1970 are meticulously retained in the UN’s websites including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC), arrangements with the World Meteorological Organization(WMO) and many other related programs.
The strangest thing, which nobody seems to mention, is that the whole basic premise was “the effects of human-caused climate change” as administered by Politicians, not scientists. NO allowance was made for natural effects which we know have been HUGE, unpredictable, and ever-changing.