Sorry I went dark on this topic for a couple of days. Don't have the links, but here are some stories from the last couple of days you'll just have to trust me on:
- Mt. Kilamanjaro and Mt. Kenya will lose all their ice cover within 25-50 years if deforestation and industrial pollution are not stopped, according to an environmental report. Not just sad--it means water flow down those mountains stops, too.
- WY is making an aggressive pitch to pull workers from job-depleted MI into its exploding energy employment. Apparently at least 200 MI families ahve already made the move. We've had times in which shifting opportunities have produced massive exoduses (exodi??) like South to North, then back again, CA several times, etc. As the South and Southwest return to unbearable and dangerous climate-wise, will the Northwest be the new beneficiary as resources drive economies higher? Are they even halfway conceivably ready, if it is?
- On the other hand, speaking of the West, seems temps there are rising higher than the overall increase in global warming, with all that means for snowmelt and stream flow as well as for plants and trees and for traditional winter recreation. The West is already 2-3 degrees F (the American one, not that C thing) warmer than its past century mean, and computer models have that at 4-5 degrees by 2050 and 7-8 by 2100. Predictions are for more extreme droughts and streamflow drops by as much as 25% by 2050.
Here are a couple more that I can give you links to, both having to do with more practical matters, that is to say, cash. This one talks about a Friends of the Earth report that we're looking at a $12 t. (that's trillion) net loss (6%-8% net global output loss) by the end of the century if global warming isn't brought under control. But for heaven's sake, it's just a tree-hugger group. Let's not hurt our economies now by doing anything sensible. (The story also talks about all the opportunities for economic growth and development inherent in meeting the challenge. Still, there's that sense thing.) The other details how the insurance industry is taking the challenge more seriously than most of the rest of the world's corporations. Of course, since we're the ones paying for the insurance (if we can get and/or afford it), the money's coming from us, which is why rich Busheviks and Inhovs can laugh it off. For now.
Sorta wish I'd stayed dark, don't you?
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