The Problem

Earth's climate has already warmed about 1 degree C due to the insulating effects of CO2.  That's not much warming, but already changes are happening which are obvious if you look: accelerating ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland, increased drought and flooding, more wild weather events, etc.

At the depths of the last ice age Earth was around 5 or 6 C cooler than today.  You can see that a temperature change which seems small can have huge effects on the condition of Earth's surface environment.

We are on track for about 5 or 6 C more warming this century, possibly within the next 50 or 60 years.  So, children alive today probably will see incredible changes.

In very brief terms what this means is that we will see a significant fraction of Earth's land area turn from farm land and forest to desert.  The oceans will warm enough to guarantee the loss of large portions of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, raising sea levels at least 30 ft or so.  (Much of these ice sheets sit below sea level, allowing warm sea water to melt them from below.)

Even though so much damage now is inevitable, stopping further CO2 emissions does two things:

1. It makes the end state of warming less severe.
2. It slows the process.

If we give up and keep pumping out CO2, we create a serious risk of making much of the planet uninhabitable.  Not only would huge areas become arid desert, but heat waves would literally be to hot for humans to survive.

As a civilization, we need to stop pumping out CO2 as soon as possible.  If we don't it is hard to see how civilization will remain intact.

As individuals, we need to brace ourselves against the problems that are to come. Identifying those problems and developing ways to deal with them is the primary purpose of this blog.

To borrow the format of my college homework days:

Given:  A rapidly warming climate, as outlined above.

Required: Make it through intact, both as a civilization and as individuals.

Solution:  To be continued . . .