Susan Anderson
writes as a comment in the NYT and her comment was listed as an editor's pick:
re
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/opinion/gail-collins-the-politics-of-climate-change.html?_r=0
SUSAN ANDERSON WRITES FROM BOSTON:
Gail Collins brings her unique light sense of humor to this as usual,
but unusually fails to lighten this dangerously dark and evil tendency
to ignore reality as we all go down the drain.
Just for the record, we are accumulating heat-trapping greenhouse
gases (global warming) at an unprecedented rate. This is increasing
the amount of energy in the system, and operating like a blanket in
warming the overall temperature of the planet. Unfortunately, among
other things this is warming the Arctic at a rapid rate (on average,
the "recovery" in 2013-14 following the shocking melt of 2012 matches
the two years after the shock of 2007 (exceeded by 2012)). This is
likely breaking up the Arctic circulation and causing these polar
incursions that make people think it's not warming.
Unfortunately the endgame on this is the opposite of simple-minded
reaction to short-term appearances, as heat goes north. But our
inability to grasp the concept of long-term change when faced with the
temperature in our backyard is dangerously ignorant, and will have
consequences.
Actions do have consequences, and this is a corker. The sixth
extinction is well under way, and we would do well to take action
instead of prevaricating and procrastinating.
A CLIMATE ACTIVIST IN BERLIN TELLS ME re the COLLINS OPED and the ANDERSON COMMENT"
ReplyDeleteDear Danny
Glad to hear from you.
I particularly like Gail Collins approach; it's a mad bad dangerous
world, and she gets it just right in my opinion. She also reaches a
much wider audience. I was thrilled to see Susan's comment get that editor's pick; before
that her comment had been deeply buried and you would never have found
it at all. It's clear that Susan's reality-based simplification is
striking a chord, and it's clear that her message was welcomed at the NYT.
Your ''Cli-fi'' approach is a good one. Just finishing Squarzoni's heavy
graphic tome, depressing.
We need many voices, and the fact that Gail Collins chose to bring
climate forward is real progress. This week's NYTimes has been
an all-out push to bring climate forward. We have an educational gap,
hence stupid articles like that wrong one about not planting trees,
which was disastrous in not identifying that this is only true in
limited regions.
Yrs
David in Berlin