2100...

Image source: Crystal Graphics

Climate change is real. Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, among other human activities, is to blame. And more and more of that global warming pollution is being dumped in the atmosphere each year.

There's a nice "60-second-science" MP3 embed on the page where the author reads the blog post. Interesting...might try it one day. Hearing it is one thing; clicking the links another and holding people that want the reigns of power in our government accountable beyond the current election cycle is still an all most important another. After all, year 2100 is 21 presidential election cycles away from 2016 (84 years). That's kicking the can down a mighty long road that children born in 2016 may actually live long enough to see the outcome of this experiment. The adults doing the kicking, won't.

Scientific American has been around since 28 August 1845 by a restless, though inventive spirit by the name of Rufus Porter. Despite this history, despite the fact that climatologists have condensed their warnings from plural book volumes' length to a mere two score pages, I count down to the armchair "expert" trolls in 5...4...3...2...1...

A "what if"?

What if we were to find archaeological evidence of hominid life on Mars? What would be the implications of such a find scientifically, theologically; within society itself?

And, what if we were to find the Martians' atmosphere didn't just drain away on its own, but they'd invented an industrial base; a global economy based on their version of fossil fuels? What if they had forests, seas, a delicate ecological structure that those who made profit from said fossil fuels exploit did not wish to change?

What if their demise could have been avoided - their globe warmed; their seas rose, and we could have had cousins on a near world? That extraterrestrials wouldn't be light years away affected by time dialation, but a clear, traversable distance in human lifetimes?

What would our reaction be to such a find?

Sadly, cue the armchair "expert" trolls in 5...4...3...2...

Scientific American: Clock Ticking on Climate Change Prevention, David Biello