writeaboutwarming

November 26, 2018 You've heard by now that the US Global Change Research Program released its Fourth National Climate Assessment last Friday. Scientists are, at last, confident enough to say that climate change is the new reality. How very much I wish they had published this bold assertion many years ago, rather than always being hesitant (" . . . we're 73% sure this could happen . . ."). While I know the politics involved cannot be allowed to sway them, and that scientists are unaccustomed to speaking for the masses, their inability to convince the scientifically uneducated of the value in climate change hypotheses has hurt us all. In any event, they have now spoken up loudly and clearly. According to NOAA, one of the 13 government agencies responsible for the Assessment, we can expect the following, should mitigating actions not be taken immediately: - Human health and safety, quality of life, and economic growth will all suffer.        The 2014 Assessment ci

November 12, 2018 The United Nations recently issued a report, the main thrust of which was to urge humankind to take immediate steps to mitigate climate change. Before we review what those steps ought to be, let's talk about why they're necessary. Anybody who's been alive and cogent during 2018 ought to know: monster wildfires, recording-breaking heatwaves, rainfall to the point of deluge, catastrophic typhoons and hurricanes, drought that produces scorched grasses, crops and tinder, all of which fuel further wildfires. Overseas, Greece and much of the Mediterranean is forecast to become a desert over the next several decades. Indeed, the shift has already begun. Extreme winds caused megafires in Portugal last year. The number of wildfires in the western U.S. continue to increase in number: acreage burned has doubled over the last three decades. The American insistence on building homes in high-risk locales doesn't help. In Europe, wildfires have increased by 43 pe