Lafeminista’s Global Warming: Are you f***ing scared yet? highlights yet another reason for grave concern about the impacts of our using the atmosphere as a trash pit: we are killing life in the ocean as
Scientists have discovered that the phytoplankton of the oceans has declined by about 40 per cent over the past century, with much of the loss occurring since the 1950s. They believe the change is linked with rising sea temperatures and global warming.
Should we mention acidification of the oceans? Accelerating extinction rates? Ever-more disrupted weather patterns globally that, among other things, are hurting agricultural production? Stronger storms? Rising seas? ….
At a core level, if you are a parent and unconcerned about what this means for your child’s life (your own as well), well, you are living with blinders on.
Global Warming should effing scare us …
Yet, it doesn’t because it also so complex …
And, sigh, it shouldn’t have to because the solution paths are so clear …
Effing Complex
When it comes down to it, it is incredibly hard to imagine a more complex problem, with more systems-of-systems challenges and interactions and complexities with so many interlocking implications (almost all negative) …
- linkages of fossil fuel pollution to health problems (from reduced IQs to asthma to cancers to …), damage to infrastructure (acid rain), security challenges and, oh by the way, global warming
- acidification of the oceans due to absorption of CO2 and unknown impacts on life in the ocean (including plankton & production of oxygen), future absorption of Co2, etc …
- shifting weather patterns, including more precipitation occurring in severe weather events …
- that Global Warming, at least in near term, can actually lead to significantly more snowfall in some areas (more moisture, more rain, and well, winter doesn’t disappear. 28 degrees F will see snow … but so will 30.
- Etc …
Of course, that list and discussion is almost endless — endless because we are learning more, with essentially each passing day, about linkages and interactions of the impacts of our using the atmosphere as a trash pit on the climate, on ecosystems, on ourselves …
[NOTE: That climate change is such a complex subject — as is the (highly) related domain of energy — has one ‘fun’ element for people who relish learning and systems-of-systems challenges. If someone claims to know everything about these domains, don’t listen to them. And, if you aren’t learning something new virtually every day, well, you’re not really trying.]
Effing Complex fosters Effing Easy (1)
Sadly, this complexity makes it far too easy for serial deniers (the Breitbarts of the climate world) to confuse the situation … in a culture that is addicted to America’s Got Talent or Bachelorette in Hawaii or UFC with a disdain for science, it is far too easy to confuse the situation especially when you have the interlocking of ideological, religious, and fiscal interests determined to wear blinders about what humanity is doing to the planet. It is too Effing Easy to confuse the American (and, well, other publics) with deception, deceit, truthiness, and outright falsehoods … especially when too many in the traditional media are accomplices through a devotion to “Faux and Balanced” journalism rather than truthful and honest reporting.
Looking past the Effing Hard to the Truly Effing Easy
The effing complexity of global warming is hard to exaggerate. That it is effing easy to confuse people about the issues adds to the complexity. And, these combine to foster massive effing frustration because, at the core, the solution (the problem reducing policy paths) is so clear cut and simple … Truly Effing Easy!
It is simply the Three Rs:
1. Reduce … Reduce demand/use of nonrenewable things from fuels to minerals to … This includes greater efficiency (getting the same thing for fewer inputs) along with conservation (determining to use / demandless). They combine to lower our demand for energy, for production, for pollution. (And, longer term but needing to be part of policy today, any sustainable path for humanity either includes massive (MASSIVE) reductions in individual demand or fewer people on the planet.)
2. Renew: Renewable energy and renew things (reuse).
3. Remediate: recycle to enable reuse of core materials, plant Trees, make up for unavoidable use of polluting resources, etc…
Now, was that really so hard?
Or, is it Effing Easy?
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NOTES:
1. 3Rs are true for individuals, families, communities, businesses, governments, nations, global society … it works, at all levels, in all societies …
2. We are at an inflection point where every second of inaction pushes us closer to utter catastrophe and raises the near-term costs of action. The situation’s urgency is too easy to understate.
3. We are in a time period where Good Policy makes Good Politics — even if certain people in the D Party don’t seem able to understand this. For example, JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! can be created with relatively low amounts of fiscal inputs, leading quickly to increased tax revenues amid a boosted economy, and radically shifting the US toward a lower carbon economy.