"Ladies and gentlemen, your governments are lying through their
teeth. You may wish to use softer language, but the truth is that they know
that their planned approach will not come anywhere near achieving the intended
global objectives. Moreover, they are now taking actions that, if we do not
stop them, will lock in guaranteed failure""" "The problem is that our governments,
under the heavy thumb of special interests, are " pursuing policies to get
every last drop of fossil fuel" [7].
Until recently few government officials dared to link extreme weather
events with climate change, using terms such as "one in a hundred years event'
for floods and fires occurring at increasing frequency [8]. Governments
continue to subsidize fossils fuel production. Some governments have abolished
climate change programs, reduced fire rescue services and discourage inclusion
of climate change in education curriculum [9].
The next ports of call are the large fossil fuel corporations, known
to donate funds to think tanks that are biased toward those who reject climate
change science by the bulk of peer-reviewed scientists, research organizations
(NASA, NOAA, NSIDC, Hadley-Met, Tyndall,
The next port of call are the small minority who have been falsifying
climate science ignoring the laws of physics and empirical observations,
lulling people to a false sense of security.
Major responsibility lies with large sectors of the corporate media
which compromise or cover-up the climate evidence which climate scientists
attempt to communicate [11]. Much of the media would not acknowledge the
connection of extreme weather events with climate change [12].
However, neither governments nor vested interests would have been
able to continue on the track leading toward a climate calamity had it not been
for the majority who, mostly aware of the risks, pay only lip service to the
issue. Ultimately it is the collective foresight or lack of such, by our
species which it will decide its future.
Where-to now?
Some scientists despair. Guy McPherson (Professor Emeritus of Natural
Resources and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) writes "It seems no matter
how dire the situation becomes, it only gets worse when I check the latest
reports" [13]. Others accept Pablo Casals dictum "The situation is hopeless. We
must take the next step".
[1] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod6.html
; http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm
[4] http://www.earthinbrackets.org/2013/01/05/no-surprise-connie-doha-was-a-failure/
[5] http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_reports.shtml
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