Bill McKibben warned of the dangers of global warming back in the mid-1980s with his The End of Nature. I read that book about 10 years ago, about 25 years after its publication. I don't think I am the only one who was way behind the curve of understanding the full extent of the climate debacle. When he wrote it we might, arguably, have been able to do something about it, whereas now, all we can really hope for is to minimize the damage and the chaos, and the suffering (the bad karma!) we have sewn. And McKibben is all about the science. Not that he hides behind his brain and can't get emotional or lapse into impassioned language, but he stood by the science; that number 350 (the maximum safe level of carbon in the air) is irrefutable. That number is history -- in more ways than one!
In his book (End of Nature), he said what was going to happen. And, it pains me to say, it is happening. Bing-bang-bing. Nobody can bemoan that they didn't know what was coming, or that they were caught off guard. It's kind of like back in the '80s there was a wild under-age party down the street where everyone was over-indulging and bingeing on all sorts of drugs, and someone came in and said, loud and clear, that they intercepted a message over a short-wave radio that there is going to be a bust, but nobody paid any attention. They were too busy having fun, and sure enough, right at the pitch of the party when everyone is stewed, the police descend and half the party is arrested. That's us. Busted. All falling over each other, stumbling around wide-eyed trying to find our shoes, not to mention our self-respect.
The party is over. Or at least let us hope so.
