MU-Peter: Climate Change: The Denial Debate (1 of 3)

Frog in A Pot or Spring Cleaning is H - E- Double Hockey Sticks
Part 1 - The Deniers "Debate"

The evolution, abundance and distribution of our species were shaped largely by climate change.

Our hominid ancestors responded to these changes in the past, adapting to new environments

and so we survived until today. Climate has impacted us many times before...how will we react this time?

The Hockey Stick Chart

The

Climate Change

There are none so blind

as those who will not see?

Denial "Debate"

Bill Maher before Michael Mann went to play dirty hockey with the deniers in Copenhagen

I don't need to preach to the enlightened or converted.

This is for those who aren't sure, don't care or are still sitting on the bench and not in the game.
Question for you - Don't you find the denials or the deniers incredible? Literally.

Hardcore climate change deniers... even if they know... apparently won't let the facts get in YOUR way.

Michael E. Mann - March 2012

True, some people can't see the forest for the trees. Some people don't see trees... they see only paper. And not just any paper, if you know what I mean. And they also seem to like using that paper to cover your eyes.

You're smart, look at all the evidence and use your own judgement. Regardless of the cause, doesn't "our family home" need some spring cleaning? intelligent animals don't soil their nest. So isn't adopting and adapting to things "Green" a smart, long-term yet profitable strategy for humanity to take?

There is now ample evidence from solid data and it all points to an obvious conclusion. There can no longer be a stick your head in the sand attitude denying that the climate is changing. Reason alone to re-assess.

Along with changes in the weather are changes in ecology. Life tends to adapt to the new patterns at varying rates depending on its capacity to keep up with the rate of change. The rate of change is important. Whether the climate change we are seeing today is due to man's activity or a normal part of a long planetary record of climate change...it is really happening. And now, it’s happening at an unprecedented rate.

The hope now is, it's not too late too late to ward off drastic disaster...

Where there any early signs?

Yes, 40 years ago.

A Polar Bear or a Canary in a Coal Mine?

Will this be us? "Bearly" hanging on?

A short drop

from dominant predator to extinct mammal?

"The Warning" officially came 20 years ago

David Suzuki

and more recently

Requiem For A Species

Clive Hamilton

Our domination as a species has pushed aside or rubbed out others just as the domination of the dinosaurs did in their day. But natural history shows us that eventually all species have a limited life span. Not just the individuals in a population, but entire groups of populations can also die out. it's all a question of time, while some species will live on and some die earlier on and we recognize that as extinction. Yet the evidence is they are all likely, at some inevitable point, in the future to become extinct. Even overly successful species can come to be so numerous that the resources no longer support any of them. Consumption and waste tip the equilibrium, grow exponentially and ruin stability. The two points we should pay attention to are; this time we are contributing to the harm to ourselves and we ourselves can do something to stop that part at least. Adopting an attitude that bases decisions on the possible consequences to seven generations ahead like in old North American and many aboriginal cultures, may not be a bad policy.

It is not the end of the earth, but…The history of life on earth for various reasons from drastic climate change from geological activity to comets and asteroids and has seen several mass extinctions. Life and evolution have always had the opportunity afterward to generate and increase bio-diversity. This is the idea of punctuated-equilibrium from Alvarez and Gould. (I will have more to say about this theory and my consulting in future posts.) The diverse post-extinction species however, would be new and can be expected to be quite different from those that were dominant there before. The evidence is that it has done so again and again. Humans themselves have hominid relatives who are now extinct. (Although Neanderthal genes are still with us). We own our existence to our ancestors having the quick ability to come up with a very wide range of adaptations when exposed to new conditions. There is no reason why this should not continue. I dare say we are still intelligent enough but are we up to the next challenges ahead. But the fact that we are not so diverse, the last lonely species in our lineage should be sobering. And wake us up.

News Media was once journalism of the facts. But is it even about science or facts anymore?
Is it about "Balanced Reporting"? Yeah right...far right.

Cleopatra the Queen of De Nial

It's scientifically real and there are facts if you care to see them. So, aren't we better off responding to it? Now, rather than later? That is, if we care to minimize the consequences on us and our children. It is already too late for many of the plants and animals we have come to know. Some are not going to be able to move to new locations, some will move but be unable to cope or even adapt to a different ecology. Many others have already been lost that we didn't really know at all. There are changes afoot in the world's species diversity and distribution.

Disruption is underway in our ecology on many fronts....
These changes can no longer be mistaken or ignored, regardless of the cause.

David Suzuki at Occupy Montreal