Heads in Sand

Amidst all the hype of sensationalized scandals and manufactured crises, it's critical for us to remember the real problems that lie ahead. Manufactured crises come and go, but certain real crises are here to stay. And today, we're seeing some startling news on the greatest global security crisis of our time.

A report out of Stanford University and published in the journal Science shows the extent to which the rate of climate change–a lot of warming in a very short amount of time–is outpacing any other periods of warming or cooling in 65 million years of Earth’s history. If current projections are accurate, the researchers say, that pace will accelerate to 50 or even 100 times faster than anything we’ve seen before. [...]

The authors of the Antarctic study aren’t overly alarmed at their findings, explaining that for the Arctic ice caps to melt at this pace would be much more of a problem. The conclusions of the Stanford study are less optimistic. To keep up with current pace of global warming, says  study author Christopher Field, we need to start adapting on a considerably faster schedule. The outlook for mitigating its effects now, in his estimation, is not so good.

Oh, yes. That's right. Not only is climate change occurring, but it's occurring at a far faster rate than scientists had expected just five years ago.

Climate change is happening, and it's happening at an incredibly fast rate. It's just plain scientific reality. That's what four Republican former EPA Administrators noted in a New York Times op-ed today.

There is no longer any credible scientific debate about the basic facts: our world continues to warm, with the last decade the hottest in modern records, and the deep ocean warming faster than the earth’s atmosphere. Sea level is rising. Arctic Sea ice is melting years faster than projected.

The costs of inaction are undeniable. The lines of scientific evidence grow only stronger and more numerous. And the window of time remaining to act is growing smaller: delay could mean that warming becomes “locked in.” [...]

Climate change puts all our progress and our successes at risk. If we could articulate one framework for successful governance, perhaps it should be this: When confronted by a problem, deal with it. Look at the facts, cut through the extraneous, devise a workable solution and get it done.

Yet instead of doing this, House G-O-TEA "leaders" keep peddling more anti-science hogwash. While all the rest of us are concerned about our future, they're still burying their heads in the sand and dreaming of new Twitter hashtags to try to spin away the truth. No matter how good of a game they play with their climate charade, we can see right through them.

We can see the effects right here in Nevada. We can also see what happens when we invest in solutions. So why won't Nevada's Republican Congresscritters ask their colleagues to get in tune with reality?



Next Wednesday will mark the one year anniversary of Senator Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) delivering this amazing speech on climate reality. We've seen some progress since then, no thanks to the Congressional G-O-TEA Caucus. When will they finally get their heads out of the sand? There's a massive climate tsunami coming, and they can't say we didn't warn them.