The world’s two great ice sheets are melting faster than anyone believed possible
I’m so glad I live on a hill. Of course, I also live on an island, so maybe I should start saving up for a kayak that I can take down Broadway and save money on subway fare, which will undoubtedly go up since they’ll have to pay to make the subway system water-tight. Aw, hell—I’ll just buy a houseboat.
But seriously, this kind of thing is exactly what scares me. Over the past decade, the human race (or those in charge of it) have shown a high level of incompetence. Even the people who are supposed to be smart (ie scientists) are not just cutting to the chase and telling us that things may very well be MUCH worse than we can tell right away. The trend is obviously leaning toward “worse” despite the lack of observable evidence beforehand. Unlike the smoking gun/mushroom cloud metaphor the Bush 43 Administration used to con many Americans into believing Iraq had WMD, there is MUCH more science behind being alarmist now.
On top of that, most of our scientists’ estimates have been conservative—and shown to ultimately be wrong (as the above article shows). So, do we wait until they’re wrong about something with huge and immediate consequences?
Better safe than sorry, I say. Plus, since we’ll all benefit from reacting to this threat even if it’s not a real threat, this is a much better thing to overreact to.
It’s just a shame we’re all too timid.
Sometimes I feel like the smartest frog in the pot of slowly warming water…
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