Politics of the Future

But while the politics of the moment clearly has consequences for how we confront the even larger phenomena that will more profoundly determine the future, we can't be deluded into seeing this as much more than a tragic distraction.

It's been in the wind for awhile now, that the climate scientists and others working through the UN were about to unleash some really grim news over the coming months.  In just the past few weeks and the past few days, it has certainly started.

A few days ago, an IPCC report confirming the reality and effect of the Climate Crisis, and warning that extreme weather is going to increase: heavier rainfalls, storms and droughts.

  Then Monday the UN confirmed that despite all the talk and even a little action, greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere are at a record high.  Another story put it this way:

"Heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are building up so high, so fast, that some scientists now think the world can no longer limit global warming to the level world leaders have agreed upon as safe.

New figures from the U.N. weather agency Monday showed that the three biggest greenhouse gases not only reached record levels last year but were increasing at an ever-faster rate, despite efforts by many countries to reduce emissions."

Other scientists have seen the writing on the wall for months if not years.  This is official confirmation that we are not going to avoid a serious Climate Crisis, and unlike a lot we all blather about every day, these are realities that will shape the lives of billions of people, many billions of creatures and other lifeforms, over centuries, many centuries.

Another international meeting of politicians as well as scientists begins soon in South Africa.  We'll see if all this news--and there's likely to be more--is enough to concentrate the world's mind.