Real. Serious. Dangerous.

This is serious. This is dangerous. This is happening. And this is very real.

So why are we still debating its existence?

Think about it. And think about what Nobel Prize winning chemist Dr. Mario Molina has to say. Years ago, he was a young scientist who uncovered the dangers of CFC's (chloroflourocarbons). And now, he wants us to realize the dangers of the great environmental crisis we're experiencing today.

The new report walks through a series of potential consequences of planetary warming, without asserting that any is sure to happen. They are possibilities, not certainties, and the distinction is crucial for an intelligent public debate about what to do. The worst-case forecasts include severe food shortages as warming makes itharder to grow crops; an accelerating rise of the sea that would inundate coastlines too rapidly for humanity to adjust; extreme heat waves, droughts and floods; and a large-scale extinction of plants and animals.

“What’s extremely clear is that there’s a risk, a very significant risk,” Dr. Molina said by telephone from Mexico, where he spends part of his time. “You don’t need 100 percent certainty for society to act.”

Some of the scientists on Dr. Molina’s committee like to point out that people can be pretty intelligent about managing risk in their personal lives. It is unlikely that your house will burn down, yet you spend hundreds of dollars a year on insurance. When you drive to work in the morning, the odds are low that some careless driver will slam into you, but it is possible, so we have spent tens of billions of dollars putting seatbelts and air bags in our cars.

The issue of how much to spend on lowering greenhouse gases is, in essence, a question about how much insurance we want to buy against worst-case outcomes. Scientists cannot decide that for us — and the report recognizes that by avoiding any specific recommendations about what to do. But it makes clear that lowering emissions, by some means, is the only way to lower the risks. Because so many people are confused about the science, the nation has never really had a frank political discussion about the options.

G-O-TEA politicians like to deny its existence. And certain media outlets (cough- "60 Minutes"- cough- Fox- cough) don't bother to get their facts straight. Yet while some political fixtures & media personalities continue to exhibit a lackadaisical attitude towards climate change, they can't change the reality that we're already feeling the effects of climate change.

That's why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) joined several other US Senators earlier this month to stay #Up4Climate. We're already feeling the dry now (while other parts of the world experience epic flooding). And we don't have any more time to waste to embark on a cleaner & greener future.

Astrophysicist & "super cool science dude" Neil DeGrasse Tyson knows quite a lot about science. Perhaps that's why he has no patience for those who try to blithely dismiss the science of climate change.



This sh*t is real. It's serious. And yes, it will be dangerous if we don't step up & take the action that's necessary for our own survival.

So why aren't we acting like our future depends on our actions today? News flash: It does.

Looking Up to the Heavens (Then Down to Hell)

Imagine a world without smartphones. And one without weather forecasts. And one without contemporary air travel. And one without cable & satellite TV... Wait, no "Honey Boo Boo" and "Real Housewives"??!! ZOMG!!!

Believe it or not, none of these would be possible without NASA. If one has ever asked why space programs matter these days, one need not wonder any more. Without the research, development, and technological advances that NASA has nurtured, we wouldn't have the 21st century as we now know it.

So why is NASA again on the chopping block on Capitol Hill? During last fall's epic Shutdown Shitfest, NASA nearly had its Mars exploration program derailed. And it was forced to pull the plug on its TV channel (until the shutdown finally ended). After all, educational programming and space exploration aren't nearly as important as Real Housewives, Honey Boo Boo, and a certain storied "Dynasty" (/snark). It's just that none of those shows would appear on our TV's if NASA wasn't around to authorize satellite launches. And now, NASA launch authorization is being held up in that infamous lower house of Congress.

It doesn't make sense. Investment in NASA means investment in our economy and our future. Why has this become such a major fight?

Well, why has extending unemployment benefits become such a major fight? Remember when Congressional Republican "leaders" stood with their beloved "TEA drinkers" when they fought to exclude extension of longer term unemployment benefits from the Ryan-Murray Budget Deal last month? It turns out that it wasn't a fluke. They're now hell bent on letting the jobless suffer.

Why? Even Senator Dean Heller (R) supports the extension, for goodness sake! It wasn't that long ago when this kind of policy was easily bipartisan. This is probably why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) is Furious today.

Like investment in space programs, aid to the jobless helps the economy. It helps to have more people spending money on such "luxuries" as housing and food. After all, we know what happens when people don't have money to pay for housing and food. (Hint: Stop by a local shelter some time.)

Once again, we seem to be cutting our own noses to spite our faces. And we're doing so because of the G-O-TEA's obsession with the very austerity policies that failed Europe. Why do they want to take us down the same dangerous path that's led to disaster for Greece, Spain, Ireland, and other troubled parts of the Eurozone? Are these G-O-TEA politicians really that allergic to sound economic policy, or does Brian Beutler have a point about the lengths many Republican politicians in DC will go to poison President Obama's reputation?

Whatever the motives behind their stunts, these latest G-O-TEA stunts threaten even more unnecessary pain & suffering. If we can't even think ahead and invest in the next frontier, what makes us think we'll ever conquer the future? And if we can't even invest in our own people when they're down on their luck and need only a helping hand to start climbing back up, then what good are we as a society?

Think about that. And by the way, Happy New Year. It's just too bad that the same old dunces on Capitol Hill don't want us to have one.