Cynicism...

Haze from coal and other fossil fuels dims the sky in Changchun, China. WANG ZHE - IMAGINECHINA
Image Source: Science Mag Link Below

Topics: Climate Change, Economy, Global Warming, Green Energy, Jobs, STEM

Our record-hated congress spent the early part of November putting legislation in place to block any climate actions currently being decided by the rest of the planet in Paris, France. They've had a blithe record of "do-nothing" for quite some time now. It's the political equivalent of cutting one's index finger off to cause a heart attack in an opponent. Voodoo without the economics...

Here's my cynicism, if I think purely of myself:

- I'll likely not be alive when the United States becomes a majority-minority (read: non-white) nation. Neither will the people who spend their addled time on Xanax in chat rooms and conspiracy provocateur meetings that consume salted potato chips and BTUs in naval gazing. We'll all be dust.

- I definitely won't be alive in the year 2100 when the climate you-know-what quite literally "hits the fan."

So, why should I care?

I honestly think this is the meditation of deniers. They won't be here. None of us will.

Here's the growth formula: N = N₀ * e^rt.

Humans, animals and bacteria are remarkable in their similar modeling.

Let N₀ = 7 billion; r (growth rate) = 0.01; t = 35 years, I get: 9,933.472,840.15. Round up to 10 billion in the year 2050.

Eighty-five years from now you get 16,377,527,963.48 in 2100. More than double; the planet doesn't get any bigger. That's a lot of mouths to feed; a lot of carbon dioxide exhaled; less trees and more poop to dispose of (methane is another greenhouse gas).

I don't care. Really I can't. I won't be here. That's three generations from now.

China's air will be just as ducky as it was today if not more so. The current haze prematurely kills 350,000 to 500,000 persons, and I'm sure by 2050 they will "improve" on those numbers.

The Dodo is no longer here. Neither are a lot of other species. Neither will eventually be any of us...maybe all of us.

Eventually the weather will be too extreme to have predictable planting seasons, agriculture for better or worse being the bedrock of modern civilization. Swaths of the planet will not be able to feed themselves. You may be able to "trim the fat" (which I suspect a lot will not have in the bodily sense), or "reduce the herd." Weapons manufacturers will do what they do in poor countries with the resources to buy their wares to invade even poorer countries; "Peace on Earth" obviously not in the business model. There will be liberty, freedom and sectarian conflicts. Mansions in gated communities will have to become fortresses with ye olden moats and maybe a few crocodiles to keep out the riffraff, or as the Statue of Liberty currently describes "the huddled masses," yearning in this instance to eat anything...or, anyone. They could all 1 and 99% take a whiff of the thick, rancid air.

But hey! Join me. We'll be atomized and this struggle will be for our great grandchildren. They could discover "warp drive"...or have a warped end.

MIT Technology Review
Wealthy Investors Target Dramatic Increase in Clean-Energy Funding, Richard Martin
Why Solar Power Could Hit a Ceiling, Mike Orcutt

#P4TC: Ragnarok...

Science Mag: Choosing a climate future in Paris, Eli Kintisch