I keep reading more and more grim climate-related stories and wanting to post them here, but what’s the point?  Curious, I searched this blog and discovered my first mention of climate change was in 2004, and my next was a yer later when the previous Republican administration of George W. Bush was reducing emission standards and claiming the the science was not settled.

Fourteen years on, history keeps repeating itself.  Meanwhile, California suffers the largest wildfires in history.  The world is experiencing an unprecedented global heatwave.  And now discussion focuses on the idea that we may be entering a dreaded climate “feedback loop” with possible unchecked warming of 8 degrees and future sea level rise of 300 feet or more.

It’s a recipe for immense global suffering, massive loss of life, possibly the extinction of humanity.  The only hope, if there is any chance left of fending off complete disaster, is a coming together of world governments to enact sweeping reforms.  We seem further away from this today than ever before.  But hey, San Francisco is banning plastic straws.

What is heartbreaking is how close we came 40 years ago to warding off the oncoming disaster.  We will have plenty of time to reckon with our failures as a civilization while we become part of the waves of mass migration.  But hey, at least Elon has his rockets, so maybe a few of us will end up on Mars!