Global Warming, it's too late to stop it

I have been saying for several years that it was too late to stop global warming and that it was time to figure out how to adapt so we can live with it. I discussed how the politicians won't tell you the truth about it here. I explained what the impact could/will be here, here and here. I was glad to see that Mark Hertsgaard agrees in his SFGate piece It's much too late to sweat global warming, Time to prepare for inevitable effects of our ill-fated future.

At the core of the global warming dilemma is a fact neither side of the debate likes to talk about: It is already too late to prevent global warming and the climate change it sets off.

Environmentalists won't say this for fear of sounding alarmist or defeatist. Politicians won't say it because then they'd have to do something about it. The world's top climate scientists have been sending this message, however, with increasing urgency for many years.

So what do real scientists say?

Since 1988, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprised of more than 2,000 scientific and technical experts from around the world, has conducted the most extensive peer-reviewed scientific inquiry in history.

In its 2001 report, the panel said that human-caused global warming had already begun, and much sooner than expected. What's more, the problem is bound to get worse, perhaps a lot worse, before it gets better.

Last month, the climate change panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, upped the ante. Although Pachauri was installed after the Bush administration forced out his predecessor, Robert Watson, for pushing too hard for action, the accumulation of evidence led Pachauri to embrace apocalyptic language: "We are risking the ability of the human race to survive," he said.

The Kyoto Treaty; throwing pebbles at the sea to stop the incoming tide.

Until now, most public discussion about global warming has focused on how to prevent it -- for example, by implementing the Kyoto Protocol, which comes into force internationally (but without U.S. participation) on Wednesday. But prevention is no longer a sufficient option. No matter how many "green" cars and solar panels Kyoto eventually calls into existence, the hard fact is that a certain amount of global warming is inevitable.

The world community therefore must make a strategic shift. It must expand its response to global warming to emphasize both long-term and short-term protection. Rising sea levels and more weather-related disasters will be a fact of life on this planet for decades to come, and we have to get ready for them.

Yes, that's what I've been saying all along. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of good reasons to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. The dependence on foreign oil is driving the reckless US foreign policy and contributing to the decline of the US dollar. Clean air is a really good thing too. Conserving some oil so our children and grandchildren can make some plastic would also be nice. But conservation is not going to prevent global warming.

Preparing to live through the global climate change bearing down on our civilization will be an enormous undertaking. It will require immense financial resources, technical expertise and organizational skill. But perhaps what's needed most of all, especially in the United States, is fresh thinking and political leadership -- an acceptance that climate change is inescapable and requires immediate counter-measures.

The unspeakable death and destruction wrought by the Indian Ocean tsunami showed what can happen when people are unprepared for disaster, but there is no reason global warming should take us by surprise.

Our civilization's early warning system -- the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- have been telling us for years that great danger is approaching. The question is, will we act quickly and decisively enough to protect ourselves against the coming storm? Or will we simply stand and face our fate naked, proud and unafraid?

Which will it be? It is obvious that politicians are not up to the task unless forced. Corporations will resist anything that impacts the next quarters bottom line. If civilization and perhaps even the human race is to survive it will have to be a grass roots effort to force those in power to address this issue. That's you and me by the way.