Ignoring Climate Change Is Only Human

A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that we’ve probably lost our chance to keep the planet’s temperature within a safe zone for humanity, which would require limiting global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times. Doing so would mean entirely transforming the world’s diet, agriculture practices and energy infrastructure in just a couple of decades, and it’s not going to happen. Indeed, the International Energy Agency expects total use of oil, coal and gas to increase over the next three decades.

The IPCC report may well be understating our predicament. NASA scientist James Hansen recently reported that global warming seems to be accelerating, and so quickly that we could approach 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit of warming in just 30 years or so, far sooner than previously expected. That would most likely result in flooding that would swamp coastal cities around the globe, slash crop yields, and cause enormous human migrations, with global political consequences.