Climate Change – I've given up and lost hope

Some of you might have noted a recent lack of climate change posts on this blog. That’s because I’ve lost hope. Our civilization is pretty much screwed. As George Carlin said, we’re going to be just another failed mutation.  We’re circling the drain now. I was really hoping for something good to come from Copenhagen in spite of the naysayers, and I’m disappointed to find that nothing happened. Nothing has changed. Everyone hawed and hemmed and basically stuck to their positions.

This simply shows that we humans are unable to change our short term habits and stave off long term disaster. For this shortcoming, we deserve to go extinct. Don’t mistake me though. Obviously the earth itself isn’t going anywhere – we are! Watch this video where George Carlin eloquently explains how we’re screwed. Initially it seems as if he’s against environment protection, but then 2 and a half minutes into the video, he reveals his real agenda. Kind of an odd way to look at it at first, but then it makes sense. Carlin argues that the planet is just fine – it’s the people that’re fucked!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

To cap it all, climate change skeptics are pointing to the recent cold wave sweeping the US and Europe and are saying that this disproves global warming. This really makes me lose hope and question the concept of humans being an intelligent species. As if you can disprove decade long trends by a single data point. As if climate is the same as weather. And worst of all, as if they really think that global warming means that the whole earth is just going to get warmer and warmer each year – like switching on the thermostat!

So you think we have some hope left eh? Let me tell you why that’s an illusion.

The amount of CO2 the planet can handle without catastrophic climate change (catastrophic for us that is) is 350 ppm. Here is proof for that. And here is more proof. Our current level is 390 ppm and we’re predicted to touch 900 ppm by the end of the century! So basically:

Required CO2 concentration = 350 ppm
Current CO2 concentration = 390 ppm
Projected CO2 concentration = 900 ppm
Last time the earth had 400 ppm = 13 million years ago!

And in case you think we can cut emissions to reach 350 ppm, let me disabuse you now. Here is what we need to do to reach 350 ppm:

  1. No further oil and gas exploration
  2. No more dirty coal burning by 2030

If the US or China takes either of the above two steps, I’ll eat my iPod Touch. Nuff said. So pack your bag folks, we’re leaving. It’s been a nice 100,000 years on this earth of ours. There must be another one out in space somewhere but we’re so separated that they might as well not exist. It’s just as well we didn’t find any actually – fucking up one planet is enough! And I’m so glad I’m not having any children. What’s the use? We’re gonna all die anyway, and I don’t want my progeny to curse me.

What do you think? Are we screwed?

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16 thoughts on “Climate Change – I've given up and lost hope”

  1. Man a true word is said in jest.

    Clearly the planet with exist when we are gone and clearly disturbance a grand scale is the evolutionary pattern and clearly we have not gotten over the innate biological driver we share with all other organisms to make more.

    So yes we probably are doomed.

    Except that all invasive species show a boom and bust. They become successful because conditions suit them and then resources run out and their numbers drop. This will happen to us too. And there is a chance (although it is slim) that we can pass through the population bubble and still have something left when it bursts. All we need to do, as George Carlin was suggesting, is focus on saving ourselves.

    Yoga is a great start.

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  2. hmm….

    The striking thing is the lack of analytical mindset amongst so-called climate skeptics, i.e. they throw all their thinking towards a supposedly skeptical point of view, rather than entertain the idea that they themselves might be wrong, and how can that be determined or not….

    I fear it’s due to the decline of empirical thinking, where “god says so” is the end of the argument in many cases….

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  3. I fear we are past all hope as well.

    It’s the greatest tragedy in history–that we would trade in the continued existence of our species, our history, everything… for short term profit and personal greed, fueled by our own ignorance.

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