The predictions of the climate scientists about global
heating have been coming true. Already
we have seen droughts, floods, rampant wildfires, shorter winters, insect
infestations, dying fish, dying polar bears, melting glaciers, permafrost
destruction, crop failures, climate refugees, and species destruction. The only
thing the scientists have gotten wrong so far is the timetable. All of the model predictions have been
underestimates.
According to Bill McKibben,
climatologists had predicted that "it might take up to a decade before the surface of
Greenland's ice sheet melted all at once. ...It actually happened in just a few
weeks." McKibben says that this shift "only
underscores how consistently cautious ice scientists have been in forecasting
the threat posed by global warming." Greenland's glaciers are melting about 30 times faster than they were 10
years ago.
Now
scientists are telling us to prepare for the flooding of coastal cities such as New York, Miami,
and Boston within four decades.
How cautious are their timetables for that prediction?
Even
a paid shill of the Koch brothers has admitted to the dangers of global
heating. The president of Exxon-Mobil
has admitted to it, but he hastened to add: "We will adapt." And who, pray tell, is going to pay for these
adaptations while the fossil fuel industry continues to drill and rake in its
billions? As a journalist responded,
"Moving entire cities can be very expensive."
We
march against pipelines and we beg powerful people for carbon taxes. We try to drive our cars a bit less often,
but our jobs are an hour away from our homes and there is no mass transit to
take us from here to there. Most
Americans even have to drive a car to the nearest grocery store. We are eons away from a viable interstate
mass transit system -- let's say, a high-speed rail that could take us from
Boston to Washington, DC in a few hours, transit of the kind that is
commonplace throughout Europe.
Global
heating is a process that is already in motion and can no longer be completely
reversed. All we can do is to prevent it
from getting much, much worse.
The Fossil Fuel
Industry Presents a Clear and Present Danger
To gain
control over this rapid feedback loop, we need to nationalize the fossil fuel industry and bring its assets, and its
resources, under social control.
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