THE SURPRISE: NOT THE RECORD, THE REACTION

Posted By JMoser on 6 Jan 2015 – 10:30am in Biological Sciences, Biology, Physical Sciences, Climate Change, Social Sciences, Demographics, Politics, Sociology

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that we have again set a record for heat in 2014. Last year was officially the hottest year on record for the entire world and was 1.1 °F above the 20th century average. According to an article by Brian Kahn in Scientific American, the last hottest record was in 1998 which was 1.0 °F above the 20th century average.

What should surprise everyone is how we are reacting to this. The release of this information from one of the four major agencies meticulously tracking global climate date (NASA, Hadley Center, and NOAA) is barely making a headline. Why?

As I have pointed out in my book, The Supercivilization, until vested interests who control our major institutions—the press, academia, Congress, state governments, The Executive Branch, and even the Supreme Court—come to the conclusion that climate change could lead to a major die-off, we will remain ambivalent. We are following the Neville Chamberlain School of Denial: we are “hopeful” that our reality will match our dreams. We are playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette.

All of the top ten hottest years in recorded history have occurred since 1998. At Humans for a Healthier World, we believe it is time to stop this nonsense immediately. Wishful thinking is not good enough. Neville Chamberlain’s “wish” to ignore the obvious while Hitler’s Germany continued to invade surrounding countries should be a reminder to all of us that hoping is not good enough. Being proactive to fight climate change is far more effective than waiting until later, when the expenses will be exponentially more expensive.

Unfortunately, those minority interests—fossil fuel companies in particular—still feel the emissions from their products are not going to be of major consequence to their bottom line profits. The key to solving this problem is demanding that our representatives must represent us and not these minority interests. How sad.