Most people think global warming is a slow gradual process. But it is not. True, there are decades when land temperatures don’t appear to increase much. But this occurs when the oceans are absorbing much of the extra heat caused by our fossil fuel emissions. And each stable period is followed by a dramatic spike in land temperatures. And the sad part is we can never go back to the cooler climate we had before. NEVER. This is because Global Warming is IRREVERSIBLE.
To visualize this, imagine a trail which climbs a mountain. Much of the trail is flat and easy, but then you arrive at HUGE steps which lead up to the next section of flat trail. And once you arrive at these steps you MUST climb them because the trail behind you has disappeared. Over the decades, these upward “temperature steps” in Earths climate might look like this:
GLOBAL WARMING TEMPERATURE “STEPS”
APOCALYPSE ! ! |
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HOT 2020s === |
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WARM 2000s === |
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1950s === |
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Each step up takes us (and the Earth) to a warmer climate than before. And once we climb up, we can never go back down. And our children can NEVER go back down. And their children can NEVER go back down. NEVER. Everyone is stuck with longer droughts and hotter heat waves. And the cold winters and occasionaly mild summers we experienced as children will be gone. Or, very rare if they occur again within our lifetimes. Let that sink in for just a moment. Because . . . . it gets worse.
Eventually, one of these big temperature steps will push Earth up into a climate that is too hot for human agriculture and human civilization. Just imagine a summer with 129F days and a 142F heat index. Our farms would turn to dust, the great forests of the Eastern United States would burn to the ground, thousands of small towns within those forests would burn to the ground and for most of us, there would not be enough food to eat. And much God’s Creation: forests, creeks, rivers, grasslands, marshlands and all life within them, gone. Forever. Once Earth’s climate shifts up into a much hotter zone, it won’t come back down for thousands of years. This is why we get no second chance with global warming. There is no ‘Reset’ button, no ‘Undo’, option and certainly no ‘Get Out of Jail Free!’ card. Global warming is not a game, Global Warming is life . . . . . . or death. For our children, for their children and for much of nature which makes Earth so beautiful to us.
Despite 25 years of somber warnings from climate scientists, we have done very little to solve the climate crisis. And the blame for this inaction lies with the Fossil Fuel industry, the Republican Party, and Conservative Media. This unholy trinity of Money, Corruption, and Lies has literally hijacked our government and confused voters about the enormous danger staring us in the face. And the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency along with the Republican Congress guarantees that nothing will be done to slow down global warming for at least the next 2 years.
So what can we do now? If we want to avoid climate catastrophe, we need our government to act quickly. Fortunately, all the we need to do is get more young people to vote for Climate Action in 2018 and beyond. And we are also quite lucky, because there are MILLIONS of these younger voters who do not vote regularly. More than enough to tip the elections to the Democrats. Mobilizing these voters to turn out in 2018 and 2020 will be the most effective action we can take to solve the climate crisis. And to mobilize these voters, we need powerful and specific messages about the dangers of global warming. Not the generic warnings about “extreme weather”, but messages about a 129F summer in 2040 which begins mega-drought in the United States, agricultural collapse, and famine. Once these younger voters “get the message” that voting for Climate Action is not “to save the Earth”, but to ensure that they don’t starve to death during middle age, they will vote. And vote regularly. But we need to get our message to them ASAP because we are running out of time. If we can elect a Democrat Congress in 2018 and a Democrat President in 2020, we can quickly pass a carbon tax and lead an international effort to reforest the Earth to slow down global warming. And this is not overly optimistic because we have come very close in the past.
For example, in 1993 President Bill Clinton proposed a fossil fuel tax which passed the House of Representatives but was killed in the United State Senate by conservative Democratic Senator, David Boren, who was paid off by the fossil fuel industry. Then in 2009, President Obama proposed a cap and trade bill which also passed the House of Representatives. And again, this bill was killed in the United State Senate which feared a backlash from the fossil fuel industry (money) and conservative media (lies) in the 2010 mid-term elections. Keep in mind that the Democrats have only had unified control of Congress and the White House during 1992-1994 and 2008-2009. Every other year has had divided power between the Republicans and Democrats. And this division of power in Washington is why global warming has not been solved.
So if history is our guide, major climate change legislation can be proposed by a Democrat President and pass a Democrat House of Representatives. So our only option is to elect a Democrat Congress in 2018, and Democrat President in 2020. But there will be difficulty in the corrupt United States Senate. To get 51 Democratic Senators to vote for a carbon tax (or carbon rebate) and 67 Senators to ratify a global reforestation treaty, we must demonize those Senators who vote against solving the climate crisis. We must attack their ethics, their personal values, and their political legitimacy. We must be clear to all Americans, that a vote against solving the climate crisis is a vote to betray America. And a vote against solving the climate crisis is a vote to condemn our young people to severe suffering and their children to potential annihilation. And, we must talk about those 129F+ summers in the 2040s. We must make a vote against solving the climate crisis, a career ending vote for any United States Senator or Represenative. And we must begin these political attacks now because our time is running out.
For about the last 20 years, the Pacific Ocean has been in a ‘cool’ phase and it has been absorbing LOTS of extra heat created by our global warming emissions. But now the Pacific Ocean appears to be switching over to a ‘warm’ phase which may last DECADES. And the Pacific Ocean will release much of that extra heat back into Earth’s atmosphere. We are entering a new era of much higher temperatures and extreme weather. (We are about to go up one of those very big global warming temperature steps pictured above.) And we will never return to the cooler climate of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. NEVER. Our farms will likely be very stressed by this warmer phase of the Pacific Ocean. And every day the global economy still spews over 100 MILLION tons of global warming emissions into our atmosphere. We are not at the tipping point of runaway global warming yet, but we are getting VERY CLOSE.
It is long past time to solve the climate crisis.