Global Warming: "Clear and Present Danger"?

[Arkham House]

I have a question in political ethics, and I genuinely don't know the answer. Suppose for the moment, for the sake of argument, that global warming is man-made, and every bit as bad as the pessimists say. That is, Miami, NY, Louisiana, et al, underwater by 2100, catastrophic changes in human habitation, etc. Now: the chief obstacle to this danger being addressed in any serious way is the Republican party and their media noise machine. The rest of the world takes this seriously, on the whole--China, India, have shown some responsibility; Europe is onsessing about it.
OK. We are faced with an immediate, devastating threat on the one hand...and on the other, we have a movement, totally isolated in the world, but with a death-grip on the US, its political system and media. And this movement is not even permitting a serious discussion of the issue, much less doing anything to combat it. It is literally condemning our children and grandchildren, and doing it for the sake of short-term profit.
Now here's the ethical dilemma. Assuming--for the sake of argument--that all this is true...what do you do about it? Just lay back and let them destroy the world? Go on about winning the "next" election--it's always the next one, apparently--and hope we have the time to wait? Is there a point at which denial of this--and the system that permits it--*can no longer be tolerated*? No matter what the cost? Is there a point at which, for our survival--literally--we have to transcend our Constitutional system, perhaps work with foreigners against our own government, our fellow Americans? Take to the streets and take our country back, at any cost?
I ask these questions--I have no answers. But if--*if*--things are as bad as they apparently are, I don't see how business-as-usual can be a valid alternative at this point. We can't wait. Does anyone else have any thoughts?

[Bobbieo]

1. Global Warming - How can we stop it???

This scenario has played out over and over again throughout geologic history. It just may be that with our creation of man-made pollution greenhouse gases, etc., we are simply speeding up another cycle of climatic change.

[Amonester]

2. It's too late to stop it. Ten or twenty years ago it was still time...

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/02/26/news/opinion/opin820.txt
"Pat Zimmerman is a conservative fellow. I'm not talking about politics. I have no idea what his politics are ... or his religion. I'm talking about science. He's no Cassandra. He makes no exaggerated speculations.

Pat is a professor of atmospheric science at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. We meet about every six months so that he can teach me about global warming. He's patient with me. He starts out slow. But invariably he forgets who he's talking to and by the time our main course arrives, I am lost in the chemistry of the greenhouse effect, the calculus of ocean currents and the elaborate ecological feedbacks of this complex problem.

We had lunch last Tuesday, and Pat Zimmerman was different than I had ever seen him before."

...<

"The news of the last year hasn't been good. Last week a research group in Greenland announced that the glacial ice sheets that cover that arctic nation are melting and slipping into the ocean at a rate much faster than scientists had predicted even a year ago ... same news from Antarctica."

Link:
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/02/26/news/opinion/opin820.txt


President Al Gore's legitimate election could have been the last chance to stop it.... The war criminals f**ked up on it (and that guy voted for these crooks? Impossible to know for sure, but...) :grr:

Now what? Adapt?

What should we do now? Make "plans" to "adapt" and "try" to "save" (rescue?) hundreds of millions people (who will have to "move" to "higher" grounds?)

What's gonna happen to the food chain (crops, endangered species, all that stuff), and what can be done to "secure" enough for everybody? What's to do with decaying clean water sources? (BIG question... Which nation "owns" it?)

How many "new" levees should be built (and where, at what cost?) :cry:

[Bobbieo]

3. Global Warming- I agree, it;s too late to stop it

To be a complete pain in the ass - I'm going to throw in another prediction - I think last year's hurricane season was just a warm-up as to what is in store for the South, perhaps the entire east coast, this coming year.

[Amonester]

4. Agreed.

:scared:

[EC]

5. And when will our fresh water turn to saline when the seas and oceans

become saturated with fresh water from the melt offs? In Asia some of the fresh water wells are already becoming salty...