It is arrogant for certain people to decide that today’s climate is the best climate for all other human beings, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told NPR’s Morning Edition.
Don’t forget to listen to the audio.
Who needs an “ideal”? It is enough that we know any abrupt and significant change in the global climate – whether warming or cooling – will cause humanity a whole lot of problems. (On a time-scale where any change taking less than a century can be considered “abrupt.”)
So we’ve gone from:
“Global Warming? You’re crazy! There’s no way that’s happening!”
to:
“OK, maybe it’s happening, but humans don’t have anything to do with it. Look at Mars and Pluto! waves report quickly”
to:
“OK, so maybe humans do have a role in changing the climate, and that Mars stuff was totally unrelated but there’s nothing we can do to it now, so you might as well smoke em if you got em!”
to: “Maybe our coastal cities could benefit from another foot to 5 feet of water covering them, and maybe we could use another million square kilometers of desert, more frequent and more intense storms, and a general disruption of our ecosystem. You know, really freshen things up a tad. It’s like nature’s Pledge.”
This is a ridiculous assertion that fails on its face. Everything on this planet has a vested interest in the climate not shifting too radically. We’ve adapted to these conditions over thousands of years, and while humans are relatively adaptable to a lot of climate via technology, it’s the ability to consistently and reliably produce food in adequate quantities that keeps us out of caves. Think about what happens when there’s just a local, temporary disruption of climate, like a drought or a flood. If it’s in a first world country, it’s an economic disaster. If it’s in a third world country, millions die. Now think about that on a global scale.
I can hardly wait for the next rationalization on this issue.
To sum it up even further:
Climate change means suffering on a massive scale.
That’s good enough for me.
Is Michael Griffin willing to pay for the loss of my garden plot?
Global warming will subject billions to an involuntary redistribution of wealth.