Climate Change Time Bomb

The United Nations warned this week that the planet's mean temperature is rising aster than thought and that we only have a limited amount of time to keep surface temperature from rising above 1.5°C, or 2.7°F before we pass the tipping point - after which no amount of mitigation is going to prevent the worst effects of climate change, a sneak preview of which we have already seen in the past decade.  

We're in danger of a planetary catastrophe, with more intense hurricanes, more hurricanes in the American Northeast, more long droughts, more devastating wildfires, more heavy snowfalls, and more extreme temperature swings.  Not to mention more of those atmospheric rivers that keep bedeviling California. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on various countries to increase their efforts to go carbon-free big time.  Because planting a tree in your backyard or installing solar panels on your roof can only get you so far.  The same goes for electric vehicles.  Guterres wants us to get more serious, which is why I'm so pessimistic.  The United States is not a serious country when it comes to matters like this.

In fact, I recently read where the Republicans' hostility to climate science originated.  After the hellishly hot summer of 1988 on the East Coast, President George H.W. Bush committed his administration to doing something about what was then called "global warming," but his original White House chief of staff, former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, undermined the effort and promoted the sort of doubletalk that clouded the issue in doubt and made it a partisan issue at that.  Sununu, who in 1989 stopped a 67-nation protocol to try and reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2005, defended his actions against the agreement in a 2020 interview. "It couldn't have happened,"  he said, "because, frankly, the leaders in the world at that time were at a stage where they were all looking how to seem like they were supporting the policy without having to make hard commitments that would cost their nations serious resources. Frankly, that’s about where we are today."

Oh.

But maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe Americans are ready to get serious about climate change.  Certainly, with all the warning signs having been on display, we've become older as well as wiser? 

Nah.  Last year, four out of five new vehicles sold in the United States were sport utility vehicles. 😠  

Sister Planets

It seems appropriate for Earth Day that news comes from England that astronomers found two planets that bear a strong resemblance to our own. awfully familiar to our own. One, Gliese 581 e, is less than twice the size of Earth, while another, Gliese 581 d, is within the prime habitable zone for potential life.

Gliese 581 e is too close to the nearest star, which makes it too hot to support life. But Swiss scientist Michel Mayor says its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth demonstrates that astronomers are getting closer to finding more planets like Earth." Not only is Gliese 581 d in an area around a solar body that would allow water on its surface, it may even have an ocean.

This is exciting news indeed, but twenty light years and change seems a long way to go to look for life. Humanoid life? Highly implausible, but the possibility of finding any kind of life out there is tempting.

In the meantime, let's take care of the life on this planet, which we know exists.

Read the full story here.