Sleepwalking to the end of earth

Geoffrey Lean reports from a gathering of climate scientists in Exeter (invited by Tony Blair) after alarming signs have been discovered that the climate change could be faster and much worse than ever expected – with a point of no return reached before 2020.

I don’t even want to quote from this article – you got to read it yourself. The second half is a illustration about the emerging consequences: water wars, disappearing nations, flooding, uninhabitable earth, rainforest fires, the big freeze, starvation, acid oceans, diseases and hurricanes. You name it – they have it.

Science published a study yesterday, that offers evidence that global warming already causes stronger hurricanes like Katrina. So eventually Katrina could be the first encounter of a whole series of such hurricanes in the coming years – thus maybe hampering the USA to fully recover from its loss of 25% oil production caused by the destruction to oil platforms, pipelines and refineries.

I remember a quote by George Bush Sr. (the same old man that is now traveling the US to collect money for a Katrina relief fund) at the Earth Summint 102 (and this quote was repeated by Dick Cheney in October 2001):

The American way of life is not negotiable.

BTW, Don’t miss this cartoon.

Now – Europe has it’s own bill to pay here, but the US is a) the biggest producer of carbondioxide (25%) and the only nation that ignores the calls of the international commnunity. Why is the Bush administration so relentless? Is it stupidity? Calculation?

Stan Moore a year ago:

In the end, after a period of indeterminable length, but possibly quite short, the American way of life will fade into history. If mankind survives the related upheaval, and if future archaeologists and sociologists and anthropologists examine the remains of the former American civilization and its impact on the world, it will be determined to have been yet another blow out of an empire — consumed with wealth accumulation, beset by corruption, and ultimately unsustainable. But just because serious thinkers and leaders of the current status quo know it is not sustainable, does not mean that they can resist the alluring attempt to continue sustaining it.