BEND OVER AND PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS - CLIMATE CHANGE IS HERE!

One out of four people do not believe in climate change; but that doesn’t matter.   As Neil deGrasse Tyson stated, ‘People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.’

Ninety-seven percent of climate scientist agree that climate change is happening and it is the result of human activity – the consensus is in. Now the question is how bad will it be.

The results are visible now.   NASA has charted:

·       Global temperature rise

·       Warming of the Oceans

·       Shrinking of the Ice Caps

·       Glacial retreat

·       Decreased snow cover

·       Sea Level Rise

·       Declined Ice Sheets

·       Extreme Weather Events

·       Ocean acidification

Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere, increasing global temperatures, leading to a greenhouse effect.

The carbon release from industry, farming and consumption is increasing carbon emissions at an unsustainable rate; and still, the global population is steadily increasing, resulting in a further increase in consumption of energy and natural resources;  and as the ice sheets in the arctic recede, tundra that has been trapped below the ice for thousands of years is releasing carbon dioxide, further accelerating the effect.

 

Atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 400,000 years, according to NASSA, has never exceeded 300 parts-per-million – until 1950.   Today it is 400 parts-per-million, and climbing at an unsustainable rate.

The results are, by 2050 we can look forward to Extreme droughts, higher flood stages, severe food shortages, wildlife extinction, cataclysmic sea level rise and mass movement of climate refugees.

What can we do about this?   The reality is that nothing will be done. 

 

All capitalistic societies main concern is making money and creating a rich, elite social class.   The very wealthy, invested in fossil fuels and polluting industries, will oppose the elimination of their carbon footprint.  They will decry climate change as a hoax and fund politicians to champion their claim.     The average citizen will not be willing to carry the burden of increased cost in taxation to move the country to sustainable energy.   And no one is willing to give up their beef.

We talk about cow farts.   Adults and kids alike love fart jokes, so we do not take seriously the effect the beef industry has on the global environment.   

Actually, it is cow burps.     As cows digest greenery they burp methane gas, that is thirty times more potent than carbon dioxide.  Beef production is the worst climate offender in agriculture.   The world cattle population has the third highest emissions on earth, behind the United States and China.  In the United States beef farms require forty percent of the agriculture land to produce three present of U.S. calorie intake. 

So, here we are.  Incremental changes over a period of time will not have a significant effect on the rapid rate of carbon dioxide increase; and the time is too short. 

The UN Climate Chief, Patricia Espinosa, stated: “If we continue to produce, consume, to function as we are doing now, we know that we are going toward a catastrophe.”

It would be interesting to live in the distant future and look back on how global warming drastically changed human society.


I am looking forward to a nice beef chuck roast stew, cooked in my slow cooker, tomorrow night.  

I saute onions, garlic and celery; cube the roast and liberally cover with Paul Prudhomme meat magic; add one cup of beef broth and one half cup of Madeira wine.   I cook on high for six hours then add boiled potatoes, carrots and onions (I find vegetables that cook with the meat take on the flavor of the meat.)

the Ol’Buzzard

FINALLY, A HERALD OF FALL

20015 was the hottest summer ever recorded in Maine; broken a year later in 2016.  Now, 2018 is the hottest summer ever recorded in Maine. 

Maine normally has between three and seven days in the summer with humidity above 70% - this year that record was smashed by 36 days of 70%+ humidity – another record. 

This has been one of the most miserable summers here in Maine in my memory.  We have never needed an air conditioner in the Western Mountains; but I fear that if the last four years are establishing a new norm, we may have to consider purchasing one.

The good news is that Fall is dawning.  We are starting to see patches of color in the trees.  This morning the outside temperature was 54 degrees and the inside temperature was 62.  I went out and turned on the oil tank and kicked on our Monitor heater.   Except for a couple of days this week, the ten-day forecast is highs in the sixties and lows in the forties and fifties.  

WE LOVE IT!

The republicans and the flat earthers still deny climate change is the result of human pollution and population explosion, so the trend will continue.  Perhaps we have already reached a point where the change is not reversable; if not, that time is not far away.  

What will be the final results when ocean currents shift, ocean salinity is diluted and ocean water rises?   I won’t be around to see it; but I don’t expect a good outcome for the human race.   

In the meantime, I will revel in the approach of fall and anticipate the first snowfall of winter.

And so is the new season of Game of Thrones

the Ol’Buzzard