The Straw That Broke The Planet's Back

(Mother Jones)  This column was written by Julia Whitty.

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What if 12 asteroids were on collision courses with earth? What if we could alter their trajectories and save our planet by the cumulative effect of our individual efforts? What if science and history proved that we were fully capable of such heroism? What would it take to get us started?

John Schellnhuber, distinguished science advisor at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom, has identified 12 global warming tipping points, such as the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest or the melting of the west Antarctic ice sheet. Any of these, if triggered, will likely initiate sudden changes across the planet, as cataclysmic as any asteroid strike.

So what will it take to trigger what we might call the 13th tipping point, the shift from personal denial to personal responsibility? What will tip us toward addressing global warming with the urgency it deserves, as the mother of all threats to homeland security?

A 2005 study on Americans' perceptions of global warming found that most are moderately concerned, but 68% believe the greatest threats are to people far away or to nonhuman nature — a dangerous and delusional misperception. Only 13% perceive risk to themselves, their families or their communities.

Many secretly perceive global warming to be an insoluble problem and respond by circling the family wagons and turning inward. Yet science shows that human beings are born with powerful tools for solving this quandary. We have the genetic smarts and the cultural smarts. We have the technological know-how. We even have the inclination.

The truth is we can change ourselves with breathtaking speed, sculpting even "immutable" human nature. Forty years ago many believed human nature mandated that blacks and whites live in segregation; 30 years ago human nature divided men and women into separate economies; 20 years ago human nature prevented us from defusing a global nuclear standoff, but in 1987 the U.S. and Soviet Union singed the INF agreement. Nowadays we blame human nature for the insolvable hazards of global warming.

Research out of the Max Planck Institute in Germany suggests how we might help ourselves evolve. We behave as better environmental citizens when educated about the science of global warming, and when our individual actions are visible to those around us — a phenomenon known as "social facilitation." Perhaps if we're vigorously informed of how global warming endangers our neighborhoods, we'll individually forego the McMansions and the Hummers and make other sustainable choices. Anything less compromises our children's future.

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[bushrocks1]

Would I send my son to this war? You might ask would I send him to World War II? Or Vietnam? Maybe you would distinguish those conflicts and whether you would send your son to fight in them. But that question is misdirected in a very important way: I can't command my son to go to war. He has to make that choice. So the better question would be: would I volunteer to fight in Iraq, WW II, Vietnam? Would I volunteer to fight in any war? Respond if drafted? I don%u2019t know. I'm not equivocating, only addressing that it is a hypothetical. To a hypothetical, I can answer, sure I'd fight. But I have nightmares of battle (from my past life as a Jacobite). So how do I feel toward those who do volunteer? Impressed and maturely knowing that many things go into their decision. But I do strongly believe that a country that can't find those men is doomed. The fact that we can find them is one reason why I say there is no failure in Iraq. Objectively, I also believe it for other reasons. An attempt to establish democracy in the Middle East is a bold, brilliant, noble effort, facing a high chance of failure. That's why I greatly respect and admire those who have made the attempt--the Bush administration. They have been resolute, something I have not seen in my lifetime. They may not succeed, for reasons outside their control or fault: traitors on the home front. Now those traitors have occupied the high ground. Yet... we're still in Iraq; the President hasn%u2019t been impeached. Why?...I'm waiting.

[boydgood]

Global warming, global schwarming. The fact is, human society is going down, down, down. It has been since the beginning. What starts new, ends up old. Just like a car. Brand new, shinny. Ten years later, ready for the junk heap. Or a baby. Brand new, then old. Spring, summer, fall, winter. Human society is in the winter of this cycle. After this cycle ends, it will be spring again. Not to worry. But it will get bad, very bad, before it gets good again. You think things are bad with pollution now. Just hang around a hundred thousand years, or wait until the end in 400,000 years. The planet will be indistinguishable from Hades. For the next 9500 years, however, we have a respite from the downward trend. Eastern wisdom and western technology will combine to make the earth a garden. That is the environmental movement of today. Just chant the Holy Name and lead a holy life. There is nothing else to be done.

[ressigmann]

to grumpas
Congratulations on joining the Gaia spirit of the Earth cult, but lets try to keep religeon out of this shall we. I was not spoon fed anything, and my I.Q. registers just below the genius level and higher that John Kerry's 120 if you insist on bringing things like this up. Clorides are supposed to destroy Ozone, and this principle led to the banning of CFCs(peak CFC production was 1.1 million tons of CFCs per year). Mount Tambora erupted in 1813 and it ejected 211 million tons of cloride into the atmosphere(taken from a book). This means that in one eruption of a volcano that more clorides that all the nations of the Earth would manufacture in about 200 years was belched into the atmosphere. There does not seem to be any lasting damage from this event. Nature contributes more than 95% of the CO2 going into the atmosphere, it does not sound like nature is hitting back, it is more like a first strike.

[grumpas]

Common sense should tell you ressigmann that when someone is abusing something like the enviornment. Eventually it is going to come back a bite them in the butt one day! It doesn't take a genius to figure this simple fact out, which obviously you aren't any genius! It's obvious you have been listening to much to right wing propaganda that is geared for big business! They could care less what happens to the planet we live on as long as they continue making millions off other people's misery! We are destoying ourselves population wise too! But, conservative's can't seem to get that fact through their heads either! But, I imagine you will continue to believe that *** you have been spoon fed! Most people like you do until the day arrives when you get a rude awakening! But, by that time it will be to late! So, have a nice day if you still can!

[ressigmann]

My eyes are brown already, I suggest you reread the rules of engagement for posting on CBSNEWS. If you know these numbers are false then post the correct ones. It is easy to say someone is incorrect, but it is different than actually proving them wrong. A science degree is nice, but not required for this sort of thing (I do a lot of self study on these issues). It might suprise you to know 250 scientists including 27 Nobel laureates signed a statement Jun 1, 1992 at the beginning of this hysteria called the Heidelberg Appeal requesting that common sense and reliable science be used before predicting that global warming was a threat.

[mrthornman]

ressigmann:

When you have a science degree, come back & post. You are so full of c-r-a-p your eyes are brown.

[ressigmann]

This global warming nonsense is nothing but hysteria. Case in point CFCs: accused of destroying ozone 20 to 40 Km above the Earth, however the molecule is heavier than air, eco nuts have yet to explain how something heavier than air can make its way 20 Km straight up. Little known fact water vapor is a greenhouse gas and has about three times the warming effect that CO2 has, yet there are no calls to ban water. Man produces something like 7,000,000,000 tons of CO2 a year, nature produces 200,000,000,000 mabye we should shoot nature and call it self defense.

We will all die in WWIII well before any global changes like that happen, and perhaps then it will happen when we start exchanging nukes with the rest of the world

[swingalong]

Why worry? George W has declared global warming "bad science" and you know how much expertise he has.

[doctor--o]

Global warming,
exponential population growth,
accelerating demand on resources
past peak production of oil.
Put this together with no political will, right wing and fundamentalist kooks saying these issues are liberal lies and distortions it doesn't bode well for our grandchildren. In fact, cataclysmic economic collapse which leads to world wide political upheaval is far more likely than any solutions which maintain the status quo.

There is a wide range of excellent literature by knowledgeable scientists and academics which paints a gloomy picture. Virtually every time I suggest a book like this to people I know, I get dismissed. People just don%u2019t believe it. It%u2019s not in their face and they don%u2019t choose to look either. This message can%u2019t get pushed hard enough.