kindness at the end 4/1/2017 0 Comments   by E.L. Christianson Jr. The Climate Change deniers were deliberately misled by a campaign directed by the fossil fuel industry.  And this non-science nonsense has dominated our political systems where profit takes priority over science and common sense! We have to get politicians to make climate change the number one priority.  As they demonstrate their stupidity, we must make them realize that they cannot protect their families from the consequences of climate change.   Everything else on their agenda is completely insignificant. Well, ok!  We know that won't be happening. So, here we are... at the end of the proverbial line.  What do we tell our children? ​ Finally, it is time for some compassion.  There really is nothing else left.   The game of accumulating greater and greater amounts of wealth is over.  The concept of how far science and technology will advance humanity is a moot point.  We now know that we can look at ourselves and look at our children and grand-children as the end of the line... literally the end of the line, the end of our own particular family line and the end for humanity in general. Our self-driving car has driven us off of the cliff.  As we rely more and more on artificial intelligence, we have allowed it to replace common sense and understanding.  We have lost sight of the basic concept that we can 'program' it to do whatever.  It can be stupid like us.  After all, it is just ones and zeros that weenter into a database. We should set greed aside as additional stores of wealth will not be beneficial for anyone.  What can have positive effect at this point is 'good will'.  Extending ourselves toward others with kindness can ease the suffering of all involved.  Kindness toward one another is the only game at the end of the game. Most religions evolved during difficult times for those in the early 'founding' movements and offered a way of viewing the world in a positive manner in the face of those difficulties.  We are facing the most difficult of times in all of human history.  Those early religious practitioners could visualize the 'end' and prepare for it by following a line of thinking that offered 'peace'.   Today, we can visualize the 'end' as just around the corner.  We will be seeking that same peace. We all need help.  We can busy ourselves by offering help to those around us.  It is local and it is immediate.  We can't offer help beyond right now because there is no helping against the problems we will all be facing in the very near future.  Providing comfort beyond the physical state is probably the most important thing... spiritual comfort and emotional comfort will benefit all of us. What can be offered when directly confronting someone who is starving and there is no food?  What assistance is there for someone combating the natural elements of the weather when shelter is not available. The old story-line has humans surviving past the 'apocalypse' by finding a 'safe' space on the' other side of the Earth', or escaping into space toward that 'Earth-like' planet in some star system.  Sounds good... not happening !!! It is time to dust off some of those old esoteric concepts about the value of inner life taught by the guru living alone on a mountain peak.  This is about all there is to give to our children.  Let them know that you love them and that you do care. As for 'capitalism', championed as the best economic system ever devised, one can see clearly where that system has delivered us... "Oh, god that we had followed a worser system". Oh, and a word about 'God's' plan... it is totally irrelevant since none of us has even the slightest clue as to what that plan might be... and that's the truth !!! we have deceived ourselves into thinking of it as 'taming the planet', or some other foolishness... Scientists Say It Could Already Be "Game Over" for Climate Change Have we already blown it? from Science Alert by David Nield There's no doubt our planet is getting hotter and hotter, but the long-term outlook could be even worse than we thought. Scientists are now saying it might already be too late to avoid a temperature rise of up to 7.36 degrees Celsius (13.25 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100. That's way above the upper limit of 4.8 degrees Celsius (8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2014, and to make matters worse, a new study suggests that we're underestimating just how sensitive Earth is to greenhouse gases. Scientists from the US and Germany analysed global mean temperatures on our planet for the last 784,000 years in an attempt to predict how warm conditions will get by 2100. Based on their results, it appears that higher CO2 levels will cause the atmosphere to heat up more quickly than previously estimated. "Our results imply that Earth's sensitivity to variations in atmospheric CO2 increases as the climate warms," explains lead researcher Tobias Friedrich from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "Currently, our planet is in a warm phase – an interglacial period – and the associated increased climate sensitivity needs to be taken into account for future projections of warming induced by human activities." yes... as in 'Time is Up" ​Climate change may be escalating so fast it could be 'game over', scientists warn New research suggests the Earth's climate could be more sensitive to greenhouse gases than thought, raising the spectre of an 'apocalyptic side of bad' temperature rise of more than 7C within a lifetime from the Independent by Ian Johnston If the Earth's temperature rises seven degrees Celsius, it could trigger the kind of runaway global warming that may have turned Venus from a habitable planet into a 460C version of hell But, if leading scientists writing in one of the most respected academic journals are right, planet Earth could be on course for global warming of more than seven degrees Celsius within a lifetime. And that, according to one of the world’s most renowned climatologists, could be “game over” – particularly given the imminent presence of climate change denier Donald Trump in the White House. Scientists have long tried to work out how the climate will react over the coming decades to the greenhouse gases humans are pumping into the atmosphere. According to the current best estimate, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), if humans carry on with a “business as usual” approach using large amounts of fossil fuels, the Earth’s average temperature will rise by between 2.6 and 4.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100. However new research by an international team of experts who looked into how the Earth’s climate has reacted over nearly 800,000 years warns this could be a major under-estimate. Because, they believe, the climate is more sensitive to greenhouse gases when it is warmer. A reconstruction of the Earth's global mean temperature over the last 784,000 years, on the left of the graph, followed by a projection to 2100 based on new calculations of the climate's sensitivity to greenhouse gases (Friedrich, et al. (2016)) In a paper in the journal Science Advances, they said the actual range could be between 4.78C to 7.36C by 2100, based on one set of calculations. Some have dismissed the idea that the world would continue to burn fossil fuels despite obvious global warming, but emissions are still increasing despite a 1C rise in average thermometer readings since the 1880s. And US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will rip up America’s commitments to the fight against climate change. Professor Michael Mann, of Penn State University in the US, who led research that produced the famous “hockey stick” graph showing how humans were dramatically increasing the Earth’s temperature, told The Independent the new paper appeared "sound and the conclusions quite defensible". “And it does indeed provide support for the notion that a Donald Trump presidency could be game over for the climate,” he wrote in an email. Trump's views on climate change mean he's a danger to us all “By ‘game over for the climate’, I mean game over for stabilizing warming below dangerous (ie greater than 2C) levels. “If Trump makes good on his promises, and the US pulls out of the Paris [climate] treaty, it is difficult to see a path forward to keeping warming below those levels.” Greenpeace UK said the new research was further evidence that urgent action was needed. Dr Doug Parr, the environmental campaign group’s chief scientist, said: “The worrying thing is the suggestion climate sensitivity is higher [than thought] is not incompatible with higher temperatures we have been seeing this year. “If there is science backing that up, that there’s a higher sensitivity of the climate to greenhouse gases, that puts at risk the prospect of keeping the globe at the Paris target of well below 2C. “Anybody who understands the situation we find ourselves in would have already have realised we are in an emergency situation.” Dr Tobias Friedrich, one of the authors of the paper, said: “Our results imply that the Earth’s sensitivity to variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide increases as the climate warms. “Currently, our planet is in a warm phase – an interglacial period – and the associated increased climate sensitivity needs to be taken into account for future projections of warming induced by human activities. “The only way out is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.” Dr Andrey Ganopolski, who was involved in the research and on the IPCC’s latest report, admitted their work was controversial with some scientists disagreeing and others agreeing with their findings. “In our field of science, you cannot be definite by 100 per cent. There are always uncertainties and we discuss this in the paper,” he said. “If we have more and more results of this sort, then we have more reasons to be concerned.” Dr Ganopolski, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, suggested their findings meant it would be harder to prevent the world entering dangerous global warming of 2C or above. “Our results mean it is not impossible to stay within 2C but it probably – if we are right and climate sensitivity is higher than this – would require even strong cuts in carbon emissions,” he said. “Whether it’s feasible politically … I believe it is feasible technically. “It would be really good to stay below 1.5C or close to that, whether it’s feasible I’m probably a bit sceptical about that.” Commenting on the paper, Professor Eric Wolff, of Cambridge University, said using data from the past was a “powerful way of understanding the climate”. Professor Brian Cox clashes with Australian climate sceptic But he noted the authors had used different ways of estimating average global temperature, some of which had produced “a lower range of values”. “The estimates of temperature in this paper are subject to large uncertainties, and therefore the range of estimates for 2100 is also very wide,” Professor Wolff said. “Still, it's encouraging that it overlaps with model estimates and confirms that the emission reductions promised in Paris are essential to avoid unacceptable climate changes." Mark Lynas laid out what would happen as the temperature rises in his award-winning book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. He was shocked by the researchers’ results. “It sounds on the apocalyptic side of bad and, in some ways, it is realistic because ‘business as usual’ just got more likely as Trump wants to rebuild the pipelines … the complete ‘fossilisation’ of the US,” he said. “It was game over at six [degrees] to be honest. I don’t think there was much more to add, other than turning the planet into Venus.” Nasa recently said Venus may once have been habitable before runaway global warming turned the planet into its current version of hell with temperatures of more than 460C, almost no water and an atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide with clouds of sulphuric acid. the humanity we offer our fellow humans is all that we have...