June was my anniversary month as a Keyboard Culture expert. My tenure has been a wild but highly rewarding ride. It’s also been historic. In a year’s time, I went from having just a handful of readers to more than 20,000 unique visitors per month! For that, the thanks go to you, dear reader, so, thank you!
June also was historic because NASA global warming authority Dr. James Hansen commemorated the twentieth anniversary of his congressional testimony by giving an update on Capitol Hill. Not surprisingly, his performance was exemplary. Since he first raised a billowing red flag over the Capitol building that human behavior was at the core of global warming causes and effects, Dr. James Hansen has done nothing but speak louder, more frequently and to growing audiences. This man knows his subject.
Even as many of the same people who listened to him responded with the same question, Why is global warming occurring? my favorite NASA global warming authority gave us the truth, so boldly that many proponents of the status quo couldn’t bring themselves to imagine the global warming causes and effects which James Hansen related.
Dr. Hansen gave us layer upon layer of proof. He gave us pictures and graphs of global warming. He gave us predictions of the causes and effects. When most of his predictions unfolded exactly as he foretold, he gave us newer, even more accurate graphs of global warming. Time after time after time, his critics responded with ad hominem attacks and Dr. James Hansen parried and volleyed with more pictures and graphs of global warming.
So, now what? James Hansen’s predictions of global warming are coming true. Where do we go from here? Well, twenty years ago, when he first testified before Congress about global warming, Dr. Hansen assuaged our concerns slightly by stating that we had a certain amount of leeway, that if we acted quickly and decisively, we had time to stave off disaster. Sadly, we barely acted at all and now have a planetary crisis on our hands.
What does this mean?
In the succeeding parts of my report on the final week of June 2008 on the topic of the global climate crisis, I will contextualize global warming causes and effects within the definition of a bittersweet neologism, climaticide.
Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line
Corbett Kroehler
Greenland photo courtesy of “Prof. Konrad Steffen, Univ. of Colorado”
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