Six_Degrees_Could_Change_the_World scared me

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/National_Geographic_Six_Degrees_Could_Change_the_World/70090419...

Greenland Melting: The End of the End of the World : Rolling Stone

Michael Crichton wrote a book that fictionalizes a man's quest to find alternative reasons for what science and particularly NASA has been saying. But if I am not to believe in conspiracies about things like the JFK assassination, then it's hard for me to believe that hardcore scientists are promoting a theory of end times just to help keep the donations for their research going. Aren't there enough real problems in the world worth researching without making up something?

In the Summer of 2003, whether it was the increased fluorocarbons in the air or not, western Europe was hit by a heat wave that they had no ability to resist. 30,000 people died from heat stroke that summer. 2500 in Paris in ONE night. Granted many were elderly and they lived in houses with tin roofs, built to withstand cold. They had very little air conditioning, but while that lead to the deaths, the cause was a freakish heat wave which they are not accustomed to.

The idea you draw from this 6 degrees show is that as the average temp rises, we will be hit by "once in a century" weather phenomena every few years. Like this heat wave in Europe. But other matters are starting to show on a daily basis. England was once known for its gloomy weather. English wine was a running joke, because the growing season for wine grapes was so short that the wine generally tasted bad. But the warm season has increased so much in England that there is now a blooming English wine business. And the French and their champagnes have been forced to uproot to England because the weather is too hot in France to grow the grapes.

Gradual changes in weather cycles is normal. But the key word is gradual. The changes we are experiencing now usually take decades or centuries to come up. Now they are happening in less than 10 years. The Himalayas are these large snowcapped mountains with enough runoff to feed the mighty Ganges River. Well the runoff has been dropping rapidly as the snow seasons have been shorter and milder. The River is a major part of the Hindu religion and it's as if God is abandoning the Hindu people.

I read an article on Greenland in Rolling Stone and it was very depressing. Greenland is losing its ice and cold seasons faster every year and instead of the companies that are causing it doing something to slow it or stop it, they are making it worse by seeing the ice free zones as potential new mining zones. Diamonds, the core elements of aluminum and even oil are all in abundance under the permafrost and the Greenland parliament is just selling the rights like crazy, killing off one of earth's last pure environments.

Think of Greenland as Ground Zero for climate change.

Funny, my wife says that people with kids at her job don't seem too concerned about the Venus-like planet we're leaving future generations. I think we have a moral duty to leave the earth in better condition than when we got here. When I cross the Metropolitan Ave. overpass on the Jackie Robinson going home and can't even see the New York City skyline because of the smog, I'd say we're failing those next generations.

The Freditor