10-26-2017, 12:21 PM
Let's get back to the topic of global warming and stop discussing personalities.
I know that I am a flawed person who has made many mistakes in my life. Whopper mistakes, indeed. Haven't we all?
Some of us are even living in places incompatible with our beliefs. There are parts of the state in which Galen and I live in which either of us would be happier. I'm not saying that Galen would be happy in Ann Arbor or Dearborn, or that I would be happy in logging or ranch country in Oregon. What is the problem? Family connections in the past that we can't quite shake off? Economic reasons?
...I find the long gray winter nights of southern Michigan depressing. I might find much the same even in the southernmost part of Oregon even if the winters aren't as harsh, let alone in Portland. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a good explanation of Michiganders going south to Florida or west to Arizona for the winter -- after their kids are out of school (Arizona and Florida reputedly have execrable K-12 education).
But back to the point. Not that it matters to either us, neither Galen nor I have any chance of living into the 2080s, when Portland will probably have a climate much like Sacramento (whose summers are about as hot as those of Dallas, but 'it's a dry heat') and winters like those of San Francisco. One will get to retire the snowplow in Michigan, where climatic conditions in Birmingham, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) will become like those of Birmingham, Alabama -- unless the summer rains fail, in which case Toledo, Ohio will have a climate much like Toledo, Spain today. (I experienced the closest thing to the "Year without a Winter" in 2012... and southern Michigan was about as parched as the Central Valley of California usually is in the summer).
And also note well: if we do nothing to mitigate global warming, whatever the Crisis of 2020 will be, the Crisis of 2100 will probably have much of its cause in global warming, especially inundation of prime farmland in low-lying areas including Bangladesh and much of northeastern India, the lower Yangtze and Huang Ho valleys in China, the Nile Valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley of Pakistan, and much of such countries as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. That implies hundreds of millions of poor people who will need to be relocated or consigned to death. And that is before I mention large numbers of people in the Low Countries, Denmark, northern Germany and Poland, much of France and Britain, the Baltic Republics, and the southeastern USA.
Global warming could be a form of genocide. Just imagine the wars that people will wage just to get a chance for survival on a shrinking landmass. The horrors of World War II resulted from the moral pathology of leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Antonescu, and Tojo. The horrors of the Crisis of 2100 will be upon Humanity even if the leadership of the time is more like that of Merkel or Obama.
I know that I am a flawed person who has made many mistakes in my life. Whopper mistakes, indeed. Haven't we all?
Some of us are even living in places incompatible with our beliefs. There are parts of the state in which Galen and I live in which either of us would be happier. I'm not saying that Galen would be happy in Ann Arbor or Dearborn, or that I would be happy in logging or ranch country in Oregon. What is the problem? Family connections in the past that we can't quite shake off? Economic reasons?
...I find the long gray winter nights of southern Michigan depressing. I might find much the same even in the southernmost part of Oregon even if the winters aren't as harsh, let alone in Portland. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a good explanation of Michiganders going south to Florida or west to Arizona for the winter -- after their kids are out of school (Arizona and Florida reputedly have execrable K-12 education).
But back to the point. Not that it matters to either us, neither Galen nor I have any chance of living into the 2080s, when Portland will probably have a climate much like Sacramento (whose summers are about as hot as those of Dallas, but 'it's a dry heat') and winters like those of San Francisco. One will get to retire the snowplow in Michigan, where climatic conditions in Birmingham, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) will become like those of Birmingham, Alabama -- unless the summer rains fail, in which case Toledo, Ohio will have a climate much like Toledo, Spain today. (I experienced the closest thing to the "Year without a Winter" in 2012... and southern Michigan was about as parched as the Central Valley of California usually is in the summer).
And also note well: if we do nothing to mitigate global warming, whatever the Crisis of 2020 will be, the Crisis of 2100 will probably have much of its cause in global warming, especially inundation of prime farmland in low-lying areas including Bangladesh and much of northeastern India, the lower Yangtze and Huang Ho valleys in China, the Nile Valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley of Pakistan, and much of such countries as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. That implies hundreds of millions of poor people who will need to be relocated or consigned to death. And that is before I mention large numbers of people in the Low Countries, Denmark, northern Germany and Poland, much of France and Britain, the Baltic Republics, and the southeastern USA.
Global warming could be a form of genocide. Just imagine the wars that people will wage just to get a chance for survival on a shrinking landmass. The horrors of World War II resulted from the moral pathology of leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Antonescu, and Tojo. The horrors of the Crisis of 2100 will be upon Humanity even if the leadership of the time is more like that of Merkel or Obama.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.