Intervention Earth

 It is easy to find a book (or article) on climate change, but the vast majority of citizens pay little heed.  With all the turmoil in southeastern American states voters keep rewarding climate change deniers.  Florida is perhaps the most vulnerable part of America, but their popular Governor Ron DeSantis has gone to great lengths to remove  the concept of "climate change" from state legislation.  Floridians need to wake up.

Climate scientists not only examine the current situation, but also the distant past.  One fact is that there have been five mass extinctions with the most recently one being 66 millions years ago. We are now in an inter glacial period.

A big concern is when we might hit a tipping point.  Most of the predictions we learn about are based on a linear projection.  It is very possible that the rate may dramatically increase as much carbon dioxide is trapped in permafrost that is melting.

 Immigration from the Global South will increase not only directly for climate change, but indirectly for fallen states.  It will get so bad that nations of the Global North will actually seal their borders by shooting any who try to cross.  Borders are going to get tougher and the pressure will grow because climate change will hit the Global South more harshly sooner,  even though they did not cause the problem.

Scientists conclude that lowering emissions alone will not be enough.  The longer there is delay the more expensive and/or risky will be any solutions.  Gwynne after interviewing over a hundred climate scientists share that belief.  There are possible solutions.

Geo engineering is offering a variety of solutions.  It is hoped that emissions will be lowered enough (will take decades and maybe centuries) while geoengineering provides temporary and/or risky solutions.   There is some opposition to the idea of geoengineering, even amongst scientists.

 Some knowledge has been gained by massive volcanoes.  Strong enough to spew sulphur dioxide over vast areas scientists learned that sun rays were deflected enough to lower the  overall global temperature, without danger to nature, but only temporarily.  This has set up projects to launch sulphur dioxide or suitable alternatives to the atmosphere.  Not without great expense and likely encountering unexpected side effects.  There is the danger of widening ozone holes. 

There are many science projects, but we don't really know how they would work out.  Gwynne who has a military background examines many options.

No solution will be done quickly and we can expect to endure increased droughts, hurricanes and rising sea levels for several years with compounding effects. 

Mankind is supposed to understand co-operation, but the reality is that not only is there plenty of denial there is also plenty of disagreement over the best approach.  Global politics is in some ways a mess.  The author thinks it is likely that some states will fail because of food failures and others will lock themselves up.

Adapting will fail.  The voters on November 6th can demonstrate against climate denialists by how they vote.  It might be too much to expect denialists to lose in the hurricane ridings, but it would be positive if they gave a scare to politicians as that might create pressure to get the ball rolling in the right direction. 

Gwynne Dyer has has been a favored author.  Here are other blogs about him.

http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2017/04/gwynne-dyer.html

http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2017/06/war-as-explained-by-gwynne-dyer.html

http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/12/growing-pains-as-seen-by-gwynne-dyer.html

http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/04/the-shortest-history-of-war.html