Yes, Heat
Taking a break from war and crippling inflationary trepidation, I turned my attention to the Arctic News blog, and industrial civilization’s heat engine is soon to be in everyone’s headlights as we all start to slow-boil, as a simmering pot on a stove might do if forgotten about before the cook left for home. (Don’t fret, I never let that happen during my 35 year cooking career. I did work with a woman responsible for burning down a huge, all-you-can-eat, fried food eatery that damn near started a forest fire in the nearby Sandia mountains; it never reopened. I didn’t ever work there. I digress.) Back to the inescapable fact of GHG’s that’s heating Earth at an ever alarming rate with no off switch. And no, electric cars, wind, or solar harvesters, will have little effect on the overall picture. Simply, we’re screwed.
I wish I had the actual numbers of pre-industrial, mean temperature of Earth, around about 1750, at the start of the industrial revolution. Most figures we see in corporate(MSM) media assume about 1880 as a base line. That makes their numbers look better. e.g. We keep hearing how we are now about 1.1 C above base line. Okay, if the baseline starts at 1880, maybe those numbers don’t seem too dire. They’re cheating. We are actually above 2.0 C, which if it could be halted there might save the environment enough to see humans into the 22nd century.
Too bad everyone was asleep at the switch at the end of WW II, what I believe was a good time to put away the tools of empire; war, population explosions, engineering ways to increase food production, and using industrial techniques to rid the oceans of fish and whales. Nope, the capitalists wanted more.
So they indoctrinated citizens to believe that expansionary capitalism was the cat’s meow. Expansionary socialism would result in similar outcomes, perhaps, a bit slower, with fewer wars and greed not being a national pastime. No, it wasn’t to be. My schooling back in the olden days of the 60’s and early 70’s did talk of pollution, overpopulation, and ecology. We saw what the energy needs of industrialization could do if allowed to continue unchecked. They were correct, just a little off on the timing. Things have accelerated. 3 C is just around the corner. 3-4 C is terminal. So are 8+ billion people.
There are no answers. It’s much too late. Ol’ Joe buddy’s plan won’t do shit. Neither will most any other plans to save industrial civilization. Even I won’t say it’s a 100% done deal, but we’re close.
Earth is a decent sized planet and things can move slow as to actual change in human time scales, but in a little bit longer than my lifetime population has tripled, seas have been depleted of most fish, rainforests have been burned up to grow grain, palm oil trees, and cattle to feed the bourgeois that can afford such luxuries. [I’m watching Iron Chef on Netflix, and have never heard of many of their high-end ingredients and I was a professional cook for 35 years. A job at a country club was as high end as I ever achieved.] It’s excesses such as these that has exacerbated the inevitable—sped it up considerably, that is.
Okay, time for the link to Arctic News. He’s saying we may already be close to 3 C which only speeds up the desertification of the Southwestern US; using a place close to home(mine) as an example. Floridians and South Carolinians know all too well what a big cyclonic storm can do.(Hurricane Ian—not pictured) Tropical Storm. below \/
Arctic News
Greenland~Notice The Thawing ^
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/09/crossing-3c.html
I’m sorry for the bleak reality of late stage industrial civilization. One thing we’re all assured of; we will die. So do civilizations. I just hope humans don’t take Earth with them. Joni Mitchell had it right back in 1970 when the tune, “Big Yellow Taxi”, was released; “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”. And a hell of of a lot more as well. Be kind and stay safe.
Peace, The Ol’ Hippy
Images~~Pixabay