Pippa the weathergirl goes off script and drops some science instead of the usual barbeque forecast:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmfcJP_0eMc#]
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Yes, there is more sea ice missing now than there is ice remaining. It’s in a “death spiral”, scientists are saying:
Rate of Arctic Summer Sea Ice Loss is 50% Higher Than Predicted
This picture from NASA shows the current extent of Arctic sea ice. The line shows the average minimum extent from 1979 to 2010.
If this truth-telling leaves you in despair and feeling hopeless, you’re not alone (“The Six Stages Of Climate Grief“). But recognizing there is a problem, as T.V.’s Dr Phil likes to say, is only the start. The sixth stage of climate grief that Ms. Wysham talks about is action. I’m living proof that action is a surefire antidote to climate trauma and despair. This is our generation’s “Great Work” – let’s get to it!
If you’re ready to embrace the “The Work” but aren’t sure where to turn, check out Citizens Climate Lobby, a grassroots group focused on creating the political will for a sustainable climate as well as empowering individuals to claim their personal and political power. You might also be interested in the approach that the Transition Network takes, which is focused on preparing communities for the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change by becoming more resilient.
Sorry, can’t ‘like’ this. The whole thing sucks too much.
Bloody humans.
Agreed. But there is a possibly, P, that this chaos is the opening to a much more equitable world, if we can embrace the shift before we head over the cliff into climate catastrophe. See “The Six Stages of Climate Grief” http://huff.to/TmEli6
Oh, I’m deep into acceptance: homo fatuus brutus is too entrenched in its stupid ways to change at this late stage. And any talk about a sixth stage (Daphne Wysham’s ‘the work’) is, I feel, just optimism-inspired lunacy; denialism in disguise.
I disagree. It’s only lunacy when it is too late, which it isn’t. One could have said the same thing about changing the apartheid regime in South Africa, or getting the British out of India, and many did. Yet it’s those who persevere despite the odds stacked against them that history honours.
It’s not too late to change? I hope you’re right, but think you’re not.
No, it isn’t too late. We have altered the earth (“eaarth” as Bill McKibbon would say) but we haven’t yet gone over the cliff into climate catastrophe. There is no guarantee that we will succeed. But whatever happens, I’m putting my best efforts into creating the conditions so that, when the penny finally drops in the political arena, there are solutions at hand. At least I’ll know I didn’t stand idly by while the climate train came barreling down the track.
“He saw what was coming and surrendered to the inevitable.”
That’s not a story that interests me. That’s not a story I want to be part of. I’ll stop fighting back when it stops mattering so much.
I love you for that, Theo! Consider yourself hugged from halfway across the country.
Hug accepted.