Year 2, Month 1, Day 17: Say What?

The Seattle Times notices the NOAA report (2010 ties 2005 as warmest year on record, breaks the record for wettest year, etc., etc.)

If you’ve been paying attention, you knew by last July that 2010 was going to break planetary weather records. And if you’re still paying attention, you’re anticipating that 2011 will be pretty hot and pretty extreme, too. Unfortunately, if you’re paying attention to climate change, you’re in the minority; most of our fellow citizens have internalized the notion that “the science isn’t settled,” thanks to our media’s readiness to “balance” every genuinely worried climate expert with a smooth-talking shill for the fossil fuel industry. The facts have been in for a long time (for example, a 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine discussed atmospheric warming caused by CO2 emissions). And yet we have failed to act. Addicted to a culture of convenience, locked in cycles of conspicuous consumption, we are unwilling to make the hard choices on which our survival as a species is increasingly likely to depend.  Hell, we can’t even talk about those choices and their consequences for our future and the futures of our children.

Warren Senders