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  • TUESDAY JULY 28 2009 6:00 AM

The Biggest Failure of All

Submitted by FearTheReaper

Edited by nicole_powers

Tags: George Bush, Global Warming, We're fucked

Years from now, as we look back in time, one glaring stance of the Bush administration will stand tall over the others. Bush's assault on the environment will forever be the worst that was done by his White House. As someone who went to college to study the earth and learn about its complexities, I believe the majority of men will not live through this century. The impact of global warming obviously goes far beyond shit just heatin’ up. We're already seeing very dangerous symptoms.

Global warming will hamper plants and animals ability to fight off infection and disease. Early warning signs are coming in the form of a massive bee die off, a massive bat die off, and an impending wheat fungus that is poised to sweep across the planet, possibly killing 80% of wheat crops.

Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80% of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from eastern Africa. It has already jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. Experts say it is poised to enter the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind will inevitably carry it to Russia, China and even North America -- if it doesn't hitch a ride with people first.

"It's a time bomb," said Jim Peterson, a professor of wheat breeding and genetics at Oregon State University in Corvallis. "It moves in the air, it can move in clothing on an airplane. We know it's going to be here. It's a matter of how long it's going to take."



Bats, bees and plants are fragile, much more so than man. The threat of global warming does not come from man getting a little hotter; it comes from a breakdown in the food supply, floods, a lack of water and dying crops. All of those things are already happening. We are already dying, just very slowly.

The few global warming deniers are wrong and shockingly stupid. Even if they were right, their argument is to keep polluting, which makes them serious idiots. My father is one of them. He sends me email after email from his right wing leaders, who simply cherry pick data and pass it off as proof that global warming is not occurring. They believe carbon dioxide levels have been rising for the past ten years and temperatures have gone down. Whatever argument they can make, consistency be damned. As I said, they are idiots and they are wrong.

Seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1995.



The scary thing is that scientists are discovering their models are not at all what they predicted -- because as time passes, the results are turning out to be far worse.

The research, conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and published this month in Journal of Climate, predicts a 90 percent probability that worldwide surface temperatures will rise more than 9 degrees (F) by 2100, compared to a previous 2003 MIT study that forecast a rise of just more than 4 degrees.



Scientists are alarmed.

The climate is heating up far faster than scientists had predicted, spurred by sharp increases in greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries like China and India, a top climate scientist said on Saturday.

"The consequence of that is we are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we've considered seriously," Chris Field, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

Field said "the actual trajectory of climate change is more serious" than any of the climate predictions in the IPCC's fourth assessment report called "Climate Change 2007."



And the fear is now that a quick change will occur.

The worst-case scenarios on climate change envisaged by the UN two years ago are already being realized, say scientists at an international meeting.

In a statement in Copenhagen on their six key messages to political leaders, they say there is an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climate shifts.



This is, quite simply, far worse than the worst-case scenario. All the doom and gloom predictions were actually rosy predictions. The suffering humans will endure this century is unimaginable.

This week, the Obama administration released satellite photos that detail what we are dealing with. These photos were “classified” by the Bush administration. They are photos of disappearing ice. The only reason to classify them is because they are damaging evidence against global warming deniers. Enjoy the horror.





The Bush administration released the photos to scientists, but would not allow them to be released for public use. Maybe they thought terrorists would get a hold of the photos of less sea ice and make non-sea iceboats to attack Alaska. Or, maybe they just wanted to keep the lie of no global warming alive because they only served big business, not the people. Either way, this is very, very bad. Overall, 1,000 photos were released by Obama, who seems to actually believe in science.

The results of human created gases will be extreme. Our forests will die. The ice caps will melt, causing massive flooding. Larger storms will kill more people. Islands will disappear. Diseases will spread. Crops will fail. Large animals will die off. Allergies will worsen exponentially. Tropical insects will die off, while temperate insects will flourish. Water wars will be common. They've already begun.

And there is no stopping it. That time has passed.

Climate change is "largely irreversible" for the next 1,000 years even if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be abruptly halted, according to a new study led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The study's authors said there was "no going back" after the report showed that changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level are "largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after CO2 emissions are completely stopped."



Besides the war and destroying the world economy, George Bush will be known as the man who did nothing while the dam was breaking. It’s his legacy. It’s also the legacy of idiots who deny global warming, who cherry pick evidence to prove their lies while mankind slowly drives off a cliff.

Is there hope? I seriously doubt it. The only remote hope we have is that the the sun is cooling. So, you can hang your hat on that. But, I think we’re toast. We are parasites and we are being removed through the old classic: A fever. You are about to live through the most horrifying century man has ever known.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. More from FearTheReaper can be found HERE. You may also enjoy his blog, Stop All Monsters.

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Comments
ENFORCER99

ENFORCER99

Vacaville, CA
July 2009

JUL 29, 2009 09:31 PM

Hunkpapa said:

ENFORCER99 said:
"Population: 307,212,123 (July 2009 est.) 4th in the world"

what makes everyone so positive that if we change our ways here the rest of the world will?? If were only 4th on the list for population and way below on land mass theres other countries, and continents for that matter that are affecting the ozone way more.

In 2004 the US produced 22% of global CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels. Doesn't that seem like a significant amount to you?

ENFORCER99 said:
but if im gonna be dead long before it starts.........

You're not. It has.



the horrible things posted by FTR have not happened yet...... the earths temp has raised a couple degrees, not enough to bother my life yet

BellyJack

BellyJack

I'm lost
May 2005

JUL 29, 2009 09:34 PM

Anyone who's anyone is using the iGizbatch app on their cracked iPhone. biggrin



(hangs head in shame) tongue

Never could understand their position on this issue ... it's in their name, dammit!

gfvella

gfvella

Australia
November 2004

JUL 29, 2009 09:42 PM

gdarklighter said:

Vermin said:
I love that some people genuinely blame this shit on farting cows.


Uh, you do realize that rearing livestock produces more greenhouse gas than transportation, right? It was reported in a pretty well-known UN study.



This article is not quite what it seems on first glance. That figure is for the totality of the livestock industry, not just what the animals pump out. A good overview can be found at New Scientist.

Agriculture represents about 40% of methane production and about 12.5% of overall greenhouse gas ouput by sector

The FAO report has become a primary source for fascist vegetarians to wave at people when they scream everyone should be vego, even though the authors of the FAO report specificalyl state this is not an option and point out that vego production is not necessarily environmentally friendly either.

Generally one ofthe problems with climate change is that every green ratbag under the sun has found an excuse to push their bandwagon using it. Hence all the carry one about animals when in the grand scheme of things they are only a small part of the probnlem. Another is the way that the greens are still opposed to nuclear power even when distinguished environmentalists like James Lovelock are arguing it is the only option available to prevent catastrophic climate change.

If the ratbag greenies would stop trying to use climate change as all their christmasses come at once to get every fascist policy their wetdreams have produced it would not be so easy for the rightwing ratbags to confuse the issue in order to protect their vested interests in fossil fuels.

BellyJack

BellyJack

I'm lost
May 2005

JUL 29, 2009 10:11 PM

ENFORCER99 said:

mydogfarted said:

ENFORCER99 said:
What about the people who believe global warming is real, and still dont give a shit?



If your neighbor beats his kids, do it make it ok for you to do it?



of course not, but my neighbor beating my kid isint affecting the world, and that neighbor could be stopped. This wont be stopped and it affects everyone. Hence i dont give a shit




What about the people who believe global warming is real, and still don't give a shit?"



'Useless' is the least inflammatory pejorative that comes to mind.


... my neighbor beating my kid isn't affecting the world, and that neighbor could be stopped. This won't be stopped and it affects everyone. Hence i don't give a shit.



Your understanding of how people interact isn't necessarily the case.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)
... and, in that example, the kid taking the beating was the neighbor's, not yours.



At the root of all social action is individual action, and this ripples outward into the larger realm of family, community, town, county, state, country, and world.

Get enough individuals doing a thing in common purpose, and change is the result. To abdicate your personal responsibility in this chain ... what would you call it?






FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

JUL 30, 2009 12:38 AM

rcrosse said:
What's most awesome is that a "comedian" is writing articles about global warming. I don't know if it exists or not. I am not that smart. But I do know that you don not win arguments by simply telling the opposition they are idiots, even if they happen to be. That's elementary school tactics that don't make your argument credible, just bias banter geared toward people who already believe what you do, and in that case makes your article both long winded and worthless. Try a different approach next time, maybe you'll make a believer out of me.



People who don't believe in global warming at this point are basically a religion, so there is no reason to attempt to "convince" you with a reasoned argument. People like you have been ignoring overwhelming facts for years, hence the idiot remarks.

Maybe you missed the part in the article where I wrote about my degree.

Mythos_

Mythos_

Germany
March 2008

JUL 30, 2009 01:48 AM

What, you want us to believe, you are intelligent and funny at the same time? What are you some kind of mutant?????

sick

sick

Minneapolis, MN
June 2003

JUL 30, 2009 05:22 AM

Have they found new evidence on what's causing colony collapse disorder in bees? Last I heard the most likely culprit was a pathogen, with climate change as a possible indirect contributor (as, upon close reading, is stated in the OP).

Weatherpunk

Weatherpunk

Japan
June 2008

JUL 30, 2009 07:03 AM

You don't have to be all lovey-dovey with Mother Nature & hug every single tree you pass to just GIVE A DAMN about what happens to the planet once you're gone.

True, you may not have children in your life. Odds are, someone you care about may. Do it for them.

Maybe you don't really like people. Fine. We'll extend this to animals/plants too. There has to be something about life you enjoy. Beer, paintball, YouTube, sleeping in.....To the best of our knowledge, it was all invented solely on Planet Earth. Why not keep a good thing rolling?

If you're just a flat out nihilist who despises everything about existence including yourself & your ability to philosophize about the futility of it all? Well, what's the point of draggin' your feet on this, then? You could ironically support environmental reform or find some other way to take yourself out of the human population & save us the resources it takes up to let you be apathetic 24/7.

Not advocating a mass suicide, but that WOULD make a hell of a dent in our carbon footprint......tongue

Mythos_

Mythos_

Germany
March 2008

JUL 30, 2009 03:46 PM

Oh, news just showed the next one:
Jellyfishes are among the winners of global warming and are terrorizing southern europes coasts. wink

The overfishing is partially responcible, too, but the warmer water (Oceam temperature, that is clima, not the weather behind my window) clearly helps their population too, as can be shown by the fact that Portuguese man o' war travel as far north as UK now (despide the name they are actually supposed live around Australia, in the Pacific and Indian Ocean).

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

JUL 30, 2009 06:15 PM

s5 said:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Global warming is obviously happening. The evidence is overwhelming, and the only "disagreement" is among the cable news chattering class. The effects are happening now, not in thousands of years from now, and we can see them getting worse with each passing year. Entire island nations of people are already having to evacuate and find new land to resettle. That's only a preview - what if it was all of America's east coast that needed to be resettled? That would be ... fun.

But let's say we're still just not sure about this global warming thing. What should we do?

Well, there are essentially two choices: do nothing, or take the recommended steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This gives us a simple decision matrix:

If we do nothing and global warming is false, then nothing changes.

If we do nothing and global warming is true, then civilization collapses. People die, coastal land becomes flooded, the food supply becomes decimated, countries go to war over dwindling resources, mass extinctions, etc.


If we do something and global warming is false, then we will have just spent the next few decades upgrading the world's energy and transportation sectors, creating new technologies, new investment opportunities, new employment, and all around creating one of the biggest periods of economic expansion in history as we go about the project of rethinking and rebuilding how civilization uses energy and land. In the process, we will put an end to our support of dictators of oil exporting nations, economies will no longer be tied to wildly erratic swings in oil prices, and we'll solve other broadly agreed on environmental problems, like deforestation, mountain top removal, water supply pollution, and so on.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

If we do something and global warming is true, then we'll have done all of that and saved civilization from killing itself.

To me, this is a no-brainer, and it's very much a "what the fuck are we waiting for?" moment. Let's face it, America and the rest of the Western world isn't doing a single thing right now other than licking its wounds after the banking meltdown and dealing with the mess from Bush's pointless war. If we want a sustained economic recovery, then starting work on a broad, ambitious project would be exactly the right thing to do.



Not only that, but a lot of the things we need to do to address global climate change are in fact things that we need to be doing whatever may be coming down the road. Things like finding ways of replacing oil both as energy source and as a building block in material goods - climate change or no climate change, oil is running out.

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